Enhanced processes for HARQ feedback

ABSTRACT

A wireless device may receive configuration parameter(s) of a time alignment timer associated with a cell. The wireless device may determine to defer transmission of a HARQ feedback, associated with a transport block, from a first timing to a second timing. The wireless device may transmit, via the cell, the HARQ feedback in the second timing based on the time alignment timer running in the second timing and regardless of whether the time alignment timer is running or is not running in the first timing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.63/180,786, filed Apr. 28, 2021, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show examples of mobile communications systems inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B show examples of user plane and control planeprotocol layers in accordance with several of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows example functions and services offered by protocol layersin a user plane protocol stack in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 shows example flow of packets through the protocol layers inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5A shows example mapping of channels between layers of the protocolstack and different physical signals in downlink in accordance withseveral of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B shows example mapping of channels between layers of the protocolstack and different physical signals in uplink in accordance withseveral of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows example physical layer processes for signal transmission inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 shows examples of RRC states and RRC state transitions inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 8 shows an example time domain transmission structure in NR bygrouping OFDM symbols into slots, subframes and frames in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows an example of time-frequency resource grid in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows example adaptation and switching of bandwidth parts inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11A shows example arrangements of carriers in carrier aggregationin accordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11B shows examples of uplink control channel groups in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B and FIG. 12C show example random access processes inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 13A shows example time and frequency structure of SSBs and theirassociations with beams in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13B shows example time and frequency structure of CSI-RSs and theirassociation with beams in accordance with several of various embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 14A, FIG. 14B and FIG. 14C show example beam management processesin accordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 15 shows example components of a wireless device and a base stationthat are in communication via an air interface in accordance withseveral of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 shows an example of timing advance medium access control (MAC)control element (CE) in accordance with several of various embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 show an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 show an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 show an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 show an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 show an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 shows an example process in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 25 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments of the disclosed technology enable processesfor a wireless device and/or one or more base stations for HARQfeedback. The exemplary disclosed embodiments may be implemented in thetechnical field of wireless communication systems. More particularly,the embodiments of the disclosed technology may enhance processesassociated with HARQ feedback when HARQ feedback is deferred.

The devices and/or nodes of the mobile communications system disclosedherein may be implemented based on various technologies and/or variousreleases/versions/amendments of a technology. The various technologiesinclude various releases of long-term evolution (LTE) technologies,various releases of 5G new radio (NR) technologies, various wirelesslocal area networks technologies and/or a combination thereof and/oralike. For example, a base station may support a given technology andmay communicate with wireless devices with different characteristics.The wireless devices may have different categories that define theircapabilities in terms of supporting various features. The wirelessdevice with the same category may have different capabilities. Thewireless devices may support various technologies such as variousreleases of LTE technologies, various releases of 5G NR technologiesand/or a combination thereof and/or alike. At least some of the wirelessdevices in the mobile communications system of the present disclosuremay be stationary or almost stationary. In this disclosure, the terms“mobile communications system” and “wireless communications system” maybe used interchangeably.

FIG. 1A shows an example of a mobile communications system 100 inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The mobile communications system 100 may be, for example,run by a mobile network operator (MNO) or a mobile virtual networkoperator (MVNO). The mobile communications system 100 may be a publicland mobile network (PLMN) run by a network operator providing a varietyof service including voice, data, short messaging service (SMS),multimedia messaging service (MMS), emergency calls, etc. The mobilecommunications system 100 includes a core network (CN) 106, a radioaccess network (RAN) 104 and at least one wireless device 102.

The CN 106 connects the RAN 104 to one or more external networks (e.g.,one or more data networks such as the Internet) and is responsible forfunctions such as authentication, charging and end-to-end connectionestablishment. Several radio access technologies (RATs) may be served bythe same CN 106.

The RAN 104 may implement a RAT and may operate between the at least onewireless device 102 and the CN 106. The RAN 104 may handle radio relatedfunctionalities such as scheduling, radio resource control, modulationand coding, multi-antenna transmissions and retransmission protocols.The wireless device and the RAN may share a portion of the radiospectrum by separating transmissions from the wireless device to the RANand the transmissions from the RAN to the wireless device. The directionof the transmissions from the wireless device to the RAN is known as theuplink and the direction of the transmissions from the RAN to thewireless device is known as the downlink. The separation of uplink anddownlink transmissions may be achieved by employing a duplexingtechnique. Example duplexing techniques include frequency divisionduplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD) or a combination of FDDand TDD.

In this disclosure, the term wireless device may refer to a device thatcommunicates with a network entity or another device using wirelesscommunication techniques. The wireless device may be a mobile device ora non-mobile (e.g., fixed) device. Examples of the wireless deviceinclude cellular phone, smart phone, tablet, laptop computer, wearabledevice (e.g., smart watch, smart shoe, fitness trackers, smart clothing,etc.), wireless sensor, wireless meter, extended reality (XR) devicesincluding augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices,Internet of Things (IoT) device, vehicle to vehicle communicationsdevice, road-side units (RSU), automobile, relay node or any combinationthereof. In some examples, the wireless device (e.g., a smart phone,tablet, etc.) may have an interface (e.g., a graphical user interface(GUI)) for configuration by an end user. In some examples, the wirelessdevice (e.g., a wireless sensor device, etc.) may not have an interfacefor configuration by an end user. The wireless device may be referred toas a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a subscriber unit, ahandset, an access terminal, a user terminal, a wireless transmit andreceive unit (WTRU) and/or other terminology.

The at least one wireless device may communicate with at least one basestation in the RAN 104. In this disclosure, the term base station mayencompass terminologies associated with various RATs. For example, abase station may be referred to as a Node B in a 3G cellular system suchas Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS), an evolved Node B(eNB) in a 4G cellular system such as evolved universal terrestrialradio access (E-UTRA), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a Next GenerationNode B (gNB) in NR and/or a 5G system, an access point (AP) in Wi-Fiand/or other wireless local area networks. A base station may bereferred to as a remote radio head (RRH), a baseband unit (BBU) inconnection with one or more RRHs, a repeater or relay for coverageextension and/or any combination thereof. In some examples, all protocollayers of a base station may be implemented in one unit. In someexamples, some of the protocol layers (e.g., upper layers) of the basestation may be implemented in a first unit (e.g., a central unit (CU))and some other protocol layer (e.g., lower layers) may be implemented inone or more second units (e.g., distributed units (DUs)).

A base station in the RAN 104 includes one or more antennas tocommunicate with the at least one wireless device. The base station maycommunicate with the at least one wireless device using radio frequency(RF) transmissions and receptions via RF transceivers. The base stationantennas may control one or more cells (or sectors). The size and/orradio coverage area of a cell may depend on the range that transmissionsby a wireless device can be successfully received by the base stationwhen the wireless device transmits using the RF frequency of the cell.The base station may be associated with cells of various sizes. At agiven location, the wireless device may be in coverage area of a firstcell of the base station and may not be in coverage area of a secondcell of the base station depending on the sizes of the first cell andthe second cell.

A base station in the RAN 104 may have various implementations. Forexample, a base station may be implemented by connecting a BBU (or a BBUpool) coupled to one or more RRHs and/or one or more relay nodes toextend the cell coverage. The BBU pool may be located at a centralizedsite like a cloud or data center. The BBU pool may be connected to aplurality of RRHs that control a plurality of cells. The combination ofBBU with the one or more RRHs may be referred to as a centralized orcloud RAN (C-RAN) architecture. In some implementations, the BBUfunctions may be implemented on virtual machines (VMs) on servers at acentralized location. This architecture may be referred to as virtualRAN (vRAN). All, most or a portion of the protocol layer functions(e.g., all or portions of physical layer, medium access control (MAC)layer and/or higher layers) may be implemented at the BBU pool and theprocessed data may be transmitted to the RRHs for further processingand/or RF transmission. The links between the BBU pool and the RRHs maybe referred to as fronthaul.

In some deployment scenarios, the RAN 104 may include macrocell basestations with high transmission power levels and large coverage areas.In other deployment scenarios, the RAN 104 may include base stationsthat employ different transmission power levels and/or have cells withdifferent coverage areas. For example, some base station may bemacrocell base stations with high transmission powers and/or largecoverage areas and other base station may be small cell base stationswith comparatively smaller transmission powers and/or coverage areas. Insome deployment scenarios, a small cell base station may have coveragethat is within or has overlap with coverage area of a macrocell basestation. A wireless device may communicate with the macrocell basestation while within the coverage area of the macrocell base station.For additional capacity, the wireless device may communicate with boththe macrocell base station and the small cell base station while in theoverlapped coverage area of the macrocell base station and the smallcell base station. Depending on their coverage areas, a small cell basestation may be referred to as a microcell base station, a picocell basestation, a femtocell base station or a home base station.

Different standard development organizations (SDOs) have specified, ormay specify in future, mobile communications systems that have similarcharacteristics as the mobile communications system 100 of FIG. 1A. Forexample, the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a group ofSDOs that provides specifications that define 3GPP technologies formobile communications systems that are akin to the mobile communicationssystem 100. The 3GPP has developed specifications for third generation(3G) mobile networks, fourth generation (4G) mobile networks and fifthgeneration (5G) mobile networks. The 3G, 4G and 5G networks are alsoknown as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long TermEvolution (LTE) and 5G system (5GS), respectively. In this disclosure,embodiments are described with respect to the RAN implemented in a 3GPP5G mobile network that is also referred to as next generation RAN(NG-RAN). The embodiments may also be implemented in other mobilecommunications systems such as 3G or 4G mobile networks or mobilenetworks that may be standardized in future such as sixth generation(6G) mobile networks or mobile networks that are implemented bystandards bodies other than 3GPP. The NG-RAN may be based on a new RATknown as new radio (NR) and/or other radio access technologies such asLTE and/or non-3GPP RATs.

FIG. 1B shows an example of a mobile communications system 110 inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The mobile communications system 110 of FIG. 1B is anexample of a 5G mobile network and includes a 5G CN (5G-CN) 130, anNG-RAN 120 and UEs (collectively 112 and individually UE 112A and UE112B). The 5G-CN 130, the NG-RAN 120 and the UEs 112 of FIG. 1B operatesubstantially alike the CN 106, the RAN 104 and the at least onewireless device 102, respectively, as described for FIG. 1A.

The 5G-CN 130 of FIG. 1B connects the NG-RAN 120 to one or more externalnetworks (e.g., one or more data networks such as the Internet) and isresponsible for functions such as authentication, charging andend-to-end connection establishment. The 5G-CN has new enhancementscompared to previous generations of CNs (e.g., evolved packet core (EPC)in the 4G networks) including service-based architecture, support fornetwork slicing and control plane/user plane split. The service-basedarchitecture of the 5G-CN provides a modular framework based on serviceand functionalities provided by the core network wherein a set ofnetwork functions are connected via service-based interfaces. Thenetwork slicing enables multiplexing of independent logical networks(e.g., network slices) on the same physical network infrastructure. Forexample, a network slice may be for mobile broadband applications withfull mobility support and a different network slice may be fornon-mobile latency-critical applications such as industry automation.The control plane/user plane split enables independent scaling of thecontrol plane and the user plane. For example, the control planecapacity may be increased without affecting the user plane of thenetwork.

The 5G-CN 130 of FIG. 1B includes an access and mobility managementfunction (AMF) 132 and a user plane function (UPF) 134. The AMF 132 maysupport termination of non-access stratum (NAS) signaling, NAS signalingsecurity such as ciphering and integrity protection, inter-3GPP accessnetwork mobility, registration management, connection management,mobility management, access authentication and authorization andsecurity context management. The NAS is a functional layer between a UEand the CN and the access stratum (AS) is a functional layer between theUE and the RAN. The UPF 134 may serve as an interconnect point betweenthe NG-RAN and an external data network. The UPF may support packetrouting and forwarding, packet inspection and Quality of Service (QoS)handling and packet filtering. The UPF may further act as a ProtocolData Unit (PDU) session anchor point for mobility within and betweenRATs.

The 5G-CN 130 may include additional network functions (not shown inFIG. 1B) such as one or more Session Management Functions (SMFs), aPolicy Control Function (PCF), a Network Exposure Function (NEF), aUnified Data Management (UDM), an Application Function (AF), and/or anAuthentication Server Function (AUSF). These network functions alongwith the AMF 132 and UPF 134 enable a service-based architecture for the5G-CN.

The NG-RAN 120 may operate between the UEs 112 and the 5G-CN 130 and mayimplement one or more RATs. The NG-RAN 120 may include one or more gNBs(e.g., gNB 122A or gNB 122B or collectively gNBs 122) and/or one or moreng-eNBs (e.g., ng-eNB 124A or ng-eNB 124B or collectively ng-eNB s 124).The general terminology for gNB s 122 and/or an ng-eNBs 124 is a basestation and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The gNBs 122and the ng-eNBs 124 may include one or more antennas to communicate withthe UEs 112. The one or more antennas of the gNB s 122 or ng-eNBs 124may control one or more cells (or sectors) that provide radio coveragefor the UEs 112.

A gNB and/or an ng-eNB of FIG. 1B may be connected to the 5G-CN 130using an NG interface. A gNB and/or an ng-eNB may be connected withother gNBs and/or ng-eNBs using an Xn interface. The NG or the Xninterfaces are logical connections that may be established using anunderlying transport network. The interface between a UE and a gNB orbetween a UE and an ng-eNBs may be referred to as the Uu interface. Aninterface (e.g., Uu, NG or Xn) may be established by using a protocolstack that enables data and control signaling exchange between entitiesin the mobile communications system of FIG. 1B. When a protocol stack isused for transmission of user data, the protocol stack may be referredto as user plane protocol stack. When a protocol stack is used fortransmission of control signaling, the protocol stack may be referred toas control plane protocol stack. Some protocol layer may be used in bothof the user plane protocol stack and the control plane protocol stackwhile other protocol layers may be specific to the user plane or controlplane.

The NG interface of FIG. 1B may include an NG-User plane (NG-U)interface between a gNB and the UPF 134 (or an ng-eNB and the UPF 134)and an NG-Control plane (NG-C) interface between a gNB and the AMF 132(or an ng-eNB and the AMF 132). The NG-U interface may providenon-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs between a gNB and the UPF oran ng-eNB and the UPF. The NG-C interface may provide services such asNG interface management, UE context management, UE mobility management,transport of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management, configurationtransfer and/or warning message transmission.

The UEs 112 and a gNB may be connected using the Uu interface and usingthe NR user plane and control plane protocol stack. The UEs 112 and anng-eNB may be connected using the Uu interface using the LTE user planeand control plane protocol stack.

In the example mobile communications system of FIG. 1B, a 5G-CN isconnected to a RAN comprised of 4G LTE and/or 5G NR RATs. In otherexample mobile communications systems, a RAN based on the 5G NR RAT maybe connected to a 4G CN (e.g., EPC). For example, earlier releases of 5Gstandards may support a non-standalone mode of operation where a NRbased RAN is connected to the 4G EPC. In an example non-standalone mode,a UE may be connected to both a 5G NR gNB and a 4G LTE eNB (e.g., ang-eNB) and the control plane functionalities (such as initial access,paging and mobility) may be provided through the 4G LTE eNB. In astandalone of operation, the 5G NR gNB is connected to a 5G-CN and theuser plane and the control plane functionalities are provided by the 5GNR gNB.

FIG. 2A shows an example of the protocol stack for the user plan of anNR Uu interface in accordance with several of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The user plane protocol stack comprises fiveprotocol layers that terminate at the UE 200 and the gNB 210. The fiveprotocol layers, as shown in FIG. 2A, include physical (PHY) layerreferred to as PHY 201 at the UE 200 and PHY 211 at the gNB 210, mediumaccess control (MAC) layer referred to as MAC 202 at the UE 200 and MAC212 at the gNB 210, radio link control (RLC) layer referred to as RLC203 at the UE 200 and RLC 213 at the gNB 210, packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) layer referred to as PDCP 204 at the UE 200 and PDCP 214at the gNB 210, and service data application protocol (SDAP) layerreferred to as SDAP 205 at the UE 200 and SDAP 215 at the gNB 210. ThePHY layer, also known as layer 1 (L1), offers transport services tohigher layers. The other four layers of the protocol stack (MAC, RLC,PDCP and SDAP) are collectively known as layer 2 (L2).

FIG. 2B shows an example of the protocol stack for the control plan ofan NR Uu interface in accordance with several of various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Some of the protocol layers (PHY, MAC, RLC andPDCP) are common between the user plane protocol stack shown in FIG. 2Aand the control plan protocol stack. The control plane protocol stackalso includes the RRC layer, referred to RRC 206 at the UE 200 and RRC216 at the gNB 210, that also terminates at the UE 200 and the gNB 210.In addition, the control plane protocol stack includes the NAS layerthat terminates at the UE 200 and the AMF 220. In FIG. 2B, the NAS layeris referred to as NAS 207 at the UE 200 and NAS 227 at the AMF 220.

FIG. 3 shows example functions and services offered to other layers by alayer in the NR user plane protocol stack of FIG. 2A in accordance withseveral of various embodiments of the present disclosure. For example,the SDAP layer of FIG. 3 (shown in FIG. 2A as SDAP 205 at the UE sideand SDAP 215 at the gNB side) may perform mapping and de-mapping of QoSflows to data radio bearers. The mapping and de-mapping may be based onQoS (e.g., delay, throughput, jitter, error rate, etc.) associated witha QoS flow. A QoS flow may be a QoS differentiation granularity for aPDU session which is a logical connection between a UE 200 and a datanetwork. A PDU session may contain one or more QoS flows. The functionsand services of the SDAP layer include mapping and de-mapping betweenone or more QoS flows and one or more data radio bearers. The SDAP layermay also mark the uplink and/or downlink packets with a QoS flow ID(QFI).

The PDCP layer of FIG. 3 (shown in FIG. 2A as PDCP 204 at the UE sideand PDCP 214 at the gNB side) may perform header compression anddecompression (e.g., using Robust Header Compression (ROHC) protocol) toreduce the protocol header overhead, ciphering and deciphering andintegrity protection and verification to enhance the security over theair interface, reordering and in-order delivery of packets anddiscarding of duplicate packets. A UE may be configured with one PDCPentity per bearer.

In an example scenario not shown in FIG. 3 , a UE may be configured withdual connectivity and may connect to two different cell groups providedby two different base stations. For example, a base station of the twobase stations may be referred to as a master base station and a cellgroup provided by the master base station may be referred to as a mastercell group (MCG). The other base station of the two base stations may bereferred to as a secondary base station and the cell group provided bythe secondary base station may be referred to as a secondary cell group(SCG). A bearer may be configured for the UE as a split bearer that maybe handled by the two different cell groups. The PDCP layer may performrouting of packets corresponding to a split bearer to and/or from RLCchannels associated with the cell groups.

In an example scenario not shown in FIG. 3 , a bearer of the UE may beconfigured (e.g., with control signaling) with PDCP packet duplication.A bearer configured with PDCP duplication may be mapped to a pluralityof RLC channels each corresponding to different one or more cells. ThePDCP layer may duplicate packets of the bearer configured with PDCPduplication and the duplicated packets may be mapped to the differentRLC channels. With PDCP packet duplication, the likelihood of correctreception of packets increases thereby enabling higher reliability.

The RLC layer of FIG. 3 (shown in FIG. 2A as RLC 203 at the UE side andRLC 213 at the gNB side) provides service to upper layers in the form ofRLC channels. The RLC layer may include three transmission modes:transparent mode (TM), Unacknowledged mode (UM) and Acknowledged mode(AM). The RLC layer may perform error correction through automaticrepeat request (ARQ) for the AM transmission mode, segmentation of RLCservice data units (SDUs) for the AM and UM transmission modes andre-segmentation of RLC SDUs for AM transmission mode, duplicatedetection for the AM transmission mode, RLC SDU discard for the AM andUM transmission modes, etc. The UE may be configured with one RLC entityper RLC channel.

The MAC layer of FIG. 3 (shown in FIG. 2A as MAC 202 at the UE side andMAC 212 at the gNB side) provides services to the RLC layer in form oflogical channels. The MAC layer may perform mapping between logicalchannels and transport channels, multiplexing/demultiplexing of MAC SDUsbelonging to one or more logical channels into/from transport blocks(TBs) delivered to/from the physical layer on transport channels,reporting of scheduling information, error correction through hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ), priority handling between UEs by meansof dynamic scheduling, priority handling between logical channels of oneUE by means of logical channel prioritization and/or padding. In case ofcarrier aggregation, a MAC entity may comprise one HARQ entity per cell.A MAC entity may support multiple numerologies, transmission timings andcells. The control signaling may configure logical channels with mappingrestrictions. The mapping restrictions in logical channel prioritizationmay control the numerology(ies), cell(s), and/or transmissiontiming(s)/duration(s) that a logical channel may use.

The PHY layer of FIG. 3 (shown in FIG. 2A as PHY 201 at the UE side andPHY 211 at the gNB side) provides transport services to the MAC layer inform of transport channels. The physical layer may handlecoding/decoding, HARQ soft combining, rate matching of a coded transportchannel to physical channels, mapping of coded transport channels tophysical channels, modulation and demodulation of physical channels,frequency and time synchronization, radio characteristics measurementsand indication to higher layers, RF processing, and mapping to antennasand radio resources.

FIG. 4 shows example processing of packets at different protocol layersin accordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In this example, three Internet Protocol (IP) packets thatare processed by the different layers of the NR protocol stack. The termSDU shown in FIG. 4 is the data unit that is entered from/to a higherlayer. In contrast, a protocol data unit (PDU) is the data unit that isentered to/from a lower layer. The flow of packets in FIG. 4 is fordownlink. An uplink data flow through layers of the NR protocol stack issimilar to FIG. 4 . In this example, the two leftmost IP packets aremapped by the SDAP layer (shown as SDAP 205 and SDAP 215 in FIG. 2A) toradio bearer 402 and the rightmost packet is mapped by the SDAP layer tothe radio bearer 404. The SDAP layer adds SDAP headers to the IP packetswhich are entered into the PDCP layer as PDCP SDUs. The PDCP layer isshown as PDCP 204 and PDCP 214 in FIG. 2A. The PDCP layer adds the PDCPheaders to the PDCP SDUs which are entered into the RLC layer as RLCSDUs. The RLC layer is shown as RLC 203 and RLC 213 in FIG. 2A. An RLCSDU may be segmented at the RLC layer. The RLC layer adds RLC headers tothe RLC SDUs after segmentation (if segmented) which are entered intothe MAC layer as MAC SDUs. The MAC layer adds the MAC headers to the MACSDUs and multiplexes one or more MAC SDUs to form a PHY SDU (alsoreferred to as a transport block (TB) or a MAC PDU).

In FIG. 4 , the MAC SDUs are multiplexed to form a transport block. TheMAC layer may multiplex one or more MAC control elements (MAC CEs) withzero or more MAC SDUs to form a transport block. The MAC CEs may also bereferred to as MAC commands or MAC layer control signaling and may beused for in-band control signaling. The MAC CEs may be transmitted by abase station to a UE (e.g., downlink MAC CEs) or by a UE to a basestation (e.g., uplink MAC CEs). The MAC CEs may be used for transmissionof information useful by a gNB for scheduling (e.g., buffer statusreport (BSR) or power headroom report (PHR)), activation/deactivation ofone or more cells, activation/deactivation of configured radio resourcesfor or one or more processes, activation/deactivation of one or moreprocesses, indication of parameters used in one or more processes, etc.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B show example mapping between logical channels,transport channels and physical channels for downlink and uplink,respectively in accordance with several of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. As discussed before, the MAC layer provides servicesto higher layer in the form of logical channels. A logical channel maybe classified as a control channel, if used for transmission of controland/or configuration information, or a traffic channel if used fortransmission of user data. Example logical channels in NR includeBroadcast Control Channel (BCCH) used for transmission of broadcastsystem control information, Paging Control Channel (PCCH) used forcarrying paging messages for wireless devices with unknown locations,Common Control Channel (CCCH) used for transmission of controlinformation between UEs and network and for UEs that have no RRCconnection with the network, Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) which is apoint-to-point bi-directional channel for transmission of dedicatedcontrol information between a UE that has an RRC connection and thenetwork and Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) which is point-to-pointchannel, dedicated to one UE, for the transfer of user information andmay exist in both uplink and downlink.

As discussed before, the PHY layer provides services to the MAC layerand higher layers in the form of transport channels. Example transportchannels in NR include Broadcast Channel (BCH) used for transmission ofpart of the BCCH referred to as master information block (MIB), DownlinkShared Channel (DL-SCH) used for transmission of data (e.g., from DTCHin downlink) and various control information (e.g., from DCCH and CCCHin downlink and part of the BCCH that is not mapped to the BCH), UplinkShared Channel (UL-SCH) used for transmission of uplink data (e.g., fromDTCH in uplink) and control information (e.g., from CCCH and DCCH inuplink) and Paging Channel (PCH) used for transmission of paginginformation from the PCCH. In addition, Random Access Channel (RACH) isa transport channel used for transmission of random access preambles.The RACH does not carry a transport block. Data on a transport channel(except RACH) may be organized in transport blocks, wherein One or moretransport blocks may be transmitted in a transmission time interval(TTI).

The PHY layer may map the transport channels to physical channels. Aphysical channel may correspond to time-frequency resources that areused for transmission of information from one or more transportchannels. In addition to mapping transport channels to physicalchannels, the physical layer may generate control information (e.g.,downlink control information (DCI) or uplink control information (UCI))that may be carried by the physical channels. Example DCI includescheduling information (e.g., downlink assignments and uplink grants),request for channel state information report, power control command,etc. Example UCI include HARQ feedback indicating correct or incorrectreception of downlink transport blocks, channel state informationreport, scheduling request, etc. Example physical channels in NR includea Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) for carrying information from theBCH, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) for carrying informationform the PCH and the DL-SCH, a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)for carrying DCI, a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) for carryinginformation from the UL-SCH and/or UCI, a Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH) for carrying UCI and Physical Random Access Channel(PRACH) for transmission of RACH (e.g., random access preamble).

The PHY layer may also generate physical signals that are not originatedfrom higher layers. As shown in FIG. 5A, example downlink physicalsignals include Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS), Phase TrackingReference Signal (PT-RS), Channel State Information Reference Signal(CSI-RS), Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and SecondarySynchronization Signal (SSS). As shown in FIG. 5B, example uplinkphysical signals include DM-RS, PT-RS and sounding reference signal(SRS).

As indicated earlier, some of the protocol layers (PHY, MAC, RLC andPDCP) of the control plane of an NR Uu interface, are common between theuser plane protocol stack (as shown in FIG. 2A) and the control planeprotocol stack (as shown in FIG. 2B). In addition to PHY, MAC, RLC andPDCP, the control plane protocol stack includes the RRC protocol layerand the NAS protocol layer.

The NAS layer, as shown in FIG. 2B, terminates at the UE 200 and the AMF220 entity of the 5G-C 130. The NAS layer is used for core networkrelated functions and signaling including registration, authentication,location update and session management. The NAS layer uses services fromthe AS of the Uu interface to transmit the NAS messages.

The RRC layer, as shown in FIG. 2B, operates between the UE 200 and thegNB 210 (more generally NG-RAN 120) and may provide services andfunctions such as broadcast of system information (SI) related to AS andNAS as well as paging initiated by the 5G-C 130 or NG-RAN 120. Inaddition, the RRC layer is responsible for establishment, maintenanceand release of an RRC connection between the UE 200 and the NG-RAN 120,carrier aggregation configuration (e.g., addition, modification andrelease), dual connectivity configuration (e.g., addition, modificationand release), security related functions, radio bearerconfiguration/maintenance and release, mobility management (e.g.,maintenance and context transfer), UE cell selection and reselection,inter-RAT mobility, QoS management functions, UE measurement reportingand control, radio link failure (RLF) detection and NAS messagetransfer. The RRC layer uses services from PHY, MAC, RLC and PDCP layersto transmit RRC messages using signaling radio bearers (SRBs). The SRBsare mapped to CCCH logical channel during connection establishment andto DCCH logical channel after connection establishment.

FIG. 6 shows example physical layer processes for signal transmission inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Data and/or control streams from MAC layer may beencoded/decoded to offer transport and control services over the radiotransmission link. For example, one or more (e.g., two as shown in FIG.6 ) transport blocks may be received from the MAC layer for transmissionvia a physical channel (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel or aphysical uplink shared channel). A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) may becalculated and attached to a transport block in the physical layer. TheCRC calculation may be based on one or more cyclic generatorpolynomials. The CRC may be used by the receiver for error detection.Following the transport block CRC attachment, a low-density parity check(LDPC) base graph selection may be performed. In example embodiments,two LDPC base graphs may be used wherein a first LDPC base graph may beoptimized for small transport blocks and a second LDPC base graph may beoptimized for comparatively larger transport blocks.

The transport block may be segmented into code blocks and code block CRCmay be calculated and attached to a code block. A code block may be LDPCcoded and the LDPC coded blocks may be individually rate matched. Thecode blocks may be concatenated to create one or more codewords. Thecontents of a codeword may be scrambled and modulated to generate ablock of complex-valued modulation symbols. The modulation symbols maybe mapped to a plurality of transmission layers (e.g., multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) layers) and the transmission layers may besubject to transform precoding and/or precoding. The precodedcomplex-valued symbols may be mapped to radio resources (e.g., resourceelements). The signal generator block may create a baseband signal andup-convert the baseband signal to a carrier frequency for transmissionvia antenna ports. The signal generator block may employ mixers, filtersand/or other radio frequency (RF) components prior to transmission viathe antennas. The functions and blocks in FIG. 6 are illustrated asexamples and other mechanisms may be implemented in various embodiments.

FIG. 7 shows examples of RRC states and RRC state transitions at a UE inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. A UE may be in one of three RRC states: RRC_IDLE 702, RRCINACTIVE 704 and RRC_CONNECTED 706. In RRC_IDLE 702 state, no RRCcontext (e.g., parameters needed for communications between the UE andthe network) may be established for the UE in the RAN. In RRC_IDLE 702state, no data transfer between the UE and the network may take placeand uplink synchronization is not maintained. The wireless device maysleep most of the time and may wake up periodically to receive pagingmessages. The uplink transmission of the UE may be based on a randomaccess process and to enable transition to the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state.The mobility in RRC_IDLE 702 state is through a cell reselectionprocedure where the UE camps on a cell based on one or more criteriaincluding signal strength that is determined based on the UEmeasurements.

In RRC_CONNECTED 706 state, the RRC context is established and both theUE and the RAN have necessary parameters to enable communicationsbetween the UE and the network. In the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state, the UEis configured with an identity known as a Cell Radio Network TemporaryIdentifier (C-RNTI) that is used for signaling purposes (e.g., uplinkand downlink scheduling, etc.) between the UE and the RAN. The wirelessdevice mobility in the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state is managed by the RAN.The wireless device provides neighboring cells and/or current servingcell measurements to the network and the network may make hand overdecisions. Based on the wireless device measurements, the currentserving base station may send a handover request message to aneighboring base station and may send a handover command to the wirelessdevice to handover to a cell of the neighboring base station. Thetransition of the wireless device from the RRC_IDLE 702 state to theRRC_CONNECTED 706 state or from the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state to theRRC_IDLE 702 state may be based on connection establishment andconnection release procedures (shown collectively as connectionestablishment/release 710 in FIG. 7 ).

To enable a faster transition to the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state (e.g.,compared to transition from RRC_IDLE 702 state to RRC_CONNECTED 706state), an RRC_INACTIVE 704 state is used for an NR UE wherein, the RRCcontext is kept at the UE and the RAN. The transition from theRRC_INACTIVE 704 state to the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state is handled by RANwithout CN signaling. Similar to the RRC_IDLE 702 state, the mobility inRRC_INACTIVE 704 state is based on a cell reselection procedure withoutinvolvement from the network. The transition of the wireless device fromthe RRC_INACTIVE 704 state to the RRC_CONNECTED 706 state or from theRRC_CONNECTED 706 state to the RRC_INACTIVE 704 state may be based onconnection resume and connection inactivation procedures (showncollectively as connection resume/inactivation 712 in FIG. 7 ). Thetransition of the wireless device from the RRC_INACTIVE 704 state to theRRC_IDLE 702 state may be based on a connection release 714 procedure asshown in FIG. 7 .

In NR, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), also calledcyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM), is the baseline transmission scheme inboth downlink and uplink of NR and the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) is a complementary uplink transmission inaddition to the baseline OFDM scheme. OFDM is multi-carrier transmissionscheme wherein the transmission bandwidth may be composed of severalnarrowband sub-carriers. The subcarriers are modulated by the complexvalued OFDM modulation symbols resulting in an OFDM signal. The complexvalued OFDM modulation symbols are obtained by mapping, by a modulationmapper, the input data (e.g., binary digits) to different points of amodulation constellation diagram. The modulation constellation diagramdepends on the modulation scheme. NR may use different types ofmodulation schemes including Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), π/2-BPSK,Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation(16QAM), 64QAM and 256QAM. Different and/or higher order modulationschemes (e.g., M-QAM in general) may be used. An OFDM signal with Nsubcarriers may be generated by processing N subcarriers in parallel forexample by using Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing. TheOFDM receiver may use FFT processing to recover the transmitted OFDMmodulation symbols. The subcarrier spacing of subcarriers in an OFDMsignal is inversely proportional to an OFDM modulation symbol duration.For example, for a 15 KHz subcarrier spacing, duration of an OFDM signalis nearly 66.7 μs. To enhance the robustness of OFDM transmission intime dispersive channels, a cyclic prefix (CP) may be inserted at thebeginning of an OFDM symbol. For example, the last part of an OFDMsymbol may be copied and inserted at the beginning of an OFDM symbol.The CP insertion enhanced the OFDM transmission scheme by preservingsubcarrier orthogonality in time dispersive channels.

In NR, different numerologies may be used for OFDM transmission. Anumerology of OFDM transmission may indicate a subcarrier spacing and aCP duration for the OFDM transmission. For example, a subcarrier spacingin NR may generally be a multiple of 15 KHz and expressed as Δf=2^(μ)·15KHz (μ=0, 1, 2, . . . ). Example subcarrier spacings used in NR include15 KHz (μ=0), 30 KHz (μ=1), 60 KHz (μ=2), 120 KHz (μ=3) and 240 KHz(μ=4). As discussed before, a duration of OFDM symbol is inverselyproportional to the subcarrier spacing and therefor OFDM symbol durationmay depend on the numerology (e.g., the μ value).

FIG. 8 shows an example time domain transmission structure in NR whereinOFDM symbols are grouped into slots, subframes and frames in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure. A slot isa group of N_(symb) ^(slot) OFDM symbols, wherein the N_(symb) ^(slot)may have a constant value (e.g., 14). Since different numerologiesresults in different OFDM symbol durations, duration of a slot may alsodepend on the numerology and may be variable. A subframe may have aduration of 1 ms and may be composed of one or more slots, the number ofwhich may depend on the slot duration. The number of slots per subframeis therefore a function of μ and may generally expressed as N_(slot)^(subframe,μ) and the number of symbols per subframe may be expressed asN_(symb) ^(subframe,μ)=N_(symb) ^(slot) N_(slot) ^(subframe,μ). A framemay have a duration of 10 ms and may consist of 10 subframes. The numberof slots per frame may depend on the numerology and therefore may bevariable. The number of slots per frame may generally be expressed asN_(slot) ^(frame,μ).

An antenna port may be defined as a logical entity such that channelcharacteristics over which a symbol on the antenna port is conveyed maybe inferred from the channel characteristics over which another symbolon the same antenna port is conveyed. For example, for DM-RS associatedwith a PDSCH, the channel over which a PDSCH symbol on an antenna portis conveyed may be inferred from the channel over which a DM-RS symbolon the same antenna port is conveyed, for example, if the two symbolsare within the same resource as the scheduled PDSCH and/or in the sameslot and/or in the same precoding resource block group (PRG). Forexample, for DM-RS associated with a PDCCH, the channel over which aPDCCH symbol on an antenna port is conveyed may be inferred from thechannel over which a DM-RS symbol on the same antenna port is conveyedif, for example, the two symbols are within resources for which the UEmay assume the same precoding being used. For example, for DM-RSassociated with a PBCH, the channel over which a PBCH symbol on oneantenna port is conveyed may be inferred from the channel over which aDM-RS symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed if, for example, thetwo symbols are within a SS/PBCH block transmitted within the same slot,and with the same block index. The antenna port may be different from aphysical antenna. An antenna port may be associated with an antenna portnumber and different physical channels may correspond to differentranges of antenna port numbers.

FIG. 9 shows an example of time-frequency resource grid in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure. Thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier bandwidth may be based on thenumerology of OFDM transmissions in the carrier. A resource element,corresponding to one symbol duration and one subcarrier, may be thesmallest physical resource in the time-frequency grid. A resourceelement (RE) for antenna port p and subcarrier spacing configuration μmay be uniquely identified by (k,l)_(p,μ) where k is the index of asubcarrier in the frequency domain and 1 may refer to the symbolposition in the time domain relative to some reference point. A resourceblock may be defined as N_(SC) ^(RB)=12 subcarriers. Since subcarrierspacing depends on the numerology of OFDM transmission, the frequencydomain span of a resource block may be variable and may depend on thenumerology. For example, for a subcarrier spacing of 15 KHz (e.g., μ=0),a resource block may be 180 KHz and for a subcarrier spacing of 30 KHz(e.g., μ=1), a resource block may be 360 KHz.

With large carrier bandwidths defined in NR and due to limitedcapabilities for some UEs (e.g., due to hardware limitations), a UE maynot support an entire carrier bandwidth. Receiving on the full carrierbandwidth may imply high energy consumption. For example, transmittingdownlink control channels on the full downlink carrier bandwidth mayresult in high power consumption for wide carrier bandwidths. NR may usea bandwidth adaptation procedure to dynamically adapt the transmit andreceive bandwidths. The transmit and receive bandwidth of a UE on a cellmay be smaller than the bandwidth of the cell and may be adjusted. Forexample, the width of the transmit and/or receive bandwidth may change(e.g., shrink during period of low activity to save power); the locationof the transmit and/or receive bandwidth may move in the frequencydomain (e.g., to increase scheduling flexibility); and the subcarrierspacing of the transmit or receive bandwidth may change (e.g., to allowdifferent services). A subset of the cell bandwidth may be referred toas a Bandwidth Part (BWP) and bandwidth adaptation may be achieved byconfiguring the UE with one or more BWPs. The base station may configurea UE with a set of downlink BWPs and a set of uplink BWPs. A BWP may becharacterized by a numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclicprefix) and a set of consecutive resource blocks in the numerology ofthe BWP. One or more first BWPs of the one or more BWPs of the cell maybe active at a time. An active BWP may be an active downlink BWP or anactive uplink BWP.

FIG. 10 shows an example of bandwidth part adaptation and switching. Inthis example, three BWPs (BWP₁ 1004, BWP₂ 1006 and BWP₃ 1008) areconfigured for a UE on a carrier bandwidth. The BWP₁ is configured witha bandwidth of 40 MHz and a numerology with subcarrier spacing of 15KHz, the BWP₂ is configured with a bandwidth of 10 MHz and a numerologywith subcarrier spacing of 15 KHz and the BWP₃ is configured with abandwidth of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 KHz. The wirelessdevice may switch from a first BWP (e.g., BWP₁) to a second BWP (e.g.,BWP₂). An active BWP of the cell may change from the first BWP to thesecond BWP in response to the BWP switching.

The BWP switching (e.g., BWP switching 1010, BWP switching 1012, BWPswitching 1014, or BWP switching 1016 in FIG. 10 ) may be based on acommand from the base station. The command may be a DCI comprisingscheduling information for the UE in the second BWP. In case of uplinkBWP switching, the first BWP and the second BWP may be uplink BWPs andthe scheduling information may be an uplink grant for uplinktransmission via the second BWP. In case of downlink BWP switching, thefirst BWP and the second BWP may be downlink BWPs and the schedulinginformation may be a downlink assignment for downlink reception via thesecond BWP.

The BWP switching (e.g., BWP switching 1010, BWP switching 1012, BWPswitching 1014, or BWP switching 1016 in FIG. 10 ) may be based on anexpiry of a timer. The base station may configure a wireless device witha BWP inactivity timer and the wireless device may switch to a defaultBWP (e.g., default downlink BWP) based on the expiry of the BWPinactivity timer. The expiry of the BWP inactivity timer may be anindication of low activity on the current active downlink BWP. The basestation may configure the wireless device with the default downlink BWP.If the base station does not configure the wireless device with thedefault BWP, the default BWP may be an initial downlink BWP. The initialactive BWP may be the BWP that the wireless device receives schedulinginformation for remaining system information upon transition to anRRC_CONNECTED state.

A wireless device may monitor a downlink control channel of a downlinkBWP. For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates inconfigured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrolREsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search spaceconfigurations. A search space configuration may define how/where tosearch for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configurationparameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameterindicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. The searchspace configuration parameters may further comprise a parameterindicating a first symbol with a slot within the slots determined formonitoring PDCCH candidates. A search space may be associated with oneor more CORESETs and the search space configuration may indicate one ormore identifiers of the one or more CORESETs. The search spaceconfiguration parameters may further indicate that whether the searchspace is a common search space or a UE-specific search space. A commonsearch space may be monitored by a plurality of wireless devices and aUE-specific search space may be dedicated to a specific UE.

FIG. 11A shows example arrangements of carriers in carrier aggregationin accordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. With carrier aggregation, multiple NR component carriers(CCs) may be aggregated. Downlink transmissions to a wireless device maytake place simultaneously on the aggregated downlink CCs resulting inhigher downlink data rates. Uplink transmissions from a wireless devicemay take place simultaneously on the aggregated uplink CCs resulting inhigher uplink data rates. The component carriers in carrier aggregationmay be on the same frequency band (e.g., intra-band carrier aggregation)or on different frequency bands (e.g., inter-band carrier aggregation).The component carriers may also be contiguous or non-contiguous. Thisresults in three possible carrier aggregation scenarios, intra-bandcontiguous CA 1102, intra-band non-contiguous CA 1104 and inter-band CA1106 as shown in FIG. 11A. Depending on the UE capability for carrieraggregation, a UE may transmit and/or receive on multiple carriers orfor a UE that is not capable of carrier aggregation, the UE may transmitand/or receive on one component carrier at a time. In this disclosure,the carrier aggregation is described using the term cell and a carrieraggregation capable UE may transmit and/or receive via multiple cells.

In carrier aggregation, a UE may be configured with multiple cells. Acell of the multiple cells configured for the UE may be referred to as aPrimary Cell (PCell). The PCell may be the first cell that the UE isinitially connected to. One or more other cells configured for the UEmay be referred to as Secondary Cells (SCells). The base station mayconfigure a UE with multiple SCells. The configured SCells may bedeactivated upon configuration and the base station may dynamicallyactivate or deactivate one or more of the configured SCells based ontraffic and/or channel conditions. The base station may activate ordeactivate configured SCells using a SCell Activation/Deactivation MACCE. The SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE may comprise a bitmap,wherein each bit in the bitmap may correspond to a SCell and the valueof the bit indicates an activation status or deactivation status of theSCell.

An SCell may also be deactivated in response to expiry of a SCelldeactivation timer of the SCell. The expiry of an SCell deactivationtimer of an SCell may be an indication of low activity (e.g., lowtransmission or reception activity) on the SCell. The base station mayconfigure the SCell with an SCell deactivation timer. The base stationmay not configure an SCell deactivation timer for an SCell that isconfigured with PUCCH (also referred to as a PUCCH SCell). Theconfiguration of the SCell deactivation timer may be per configuredSCell and different SCells may be configured with different SCelldeactivation timer values. The SCell deactivation timer may be restartedbased on one or more criteria including reception of downlink controlinformation on the SCell indicating uplink grant or downlink assignmentfor the SCell or reception of downlink control information on ascheduling cell indicating uplink grant or downlink assignment for theSCell or transmission of a MAC PDU based on a configured uplink grant orreception of a configured downlink assignment.

A PCell for a UE may be an SCell for another UE and a SCell for a UE maybe PCell for another UE. The configuration of PCell may be UE-specific.One or more SCells of the multiple SCells configured for a UE may beconfigured as downlink-only SCells, e.g., may only be used for downlinkreception and may not be used for uplink transmission. In case ofself-scheduling, the base station may transmit signaling for uplinkgrants and/or downlink assignments on the same cell that thecorresponding uplink or downlink transmission takes place. In case ofcross-carrier scheduling, the base station may transmit signaling foruplink grants and/or downlink assignments on a cell different from thecell that the corresponding uplink or downlink transmission takes place.

FIG. 11B shows examples of uplink control channel groups in accordancewith several of various embodiments of the present disclosure. A basestation may configure a UE with multiple PUCCH groups wherein a PUCCHgroup comprises one or more cells. For example, as shown in FIG. 11B,the base station may configure a UE with a primary PUCCH group 1114 anda secondary PUCCH group 1116. The primary PUCCH group may comprise thePCell 1110 and one or more first SCells. First UCI corresponding to thePCell and the one or more first SCells of the primary PUCCH group may betransmitted by the PUCCH of the PCell. The first UCI may be, forexample, HARQ feedback for downlink transmissions via downlink CCs ofthe PCell and the one or more first SCells. The secondary PUCCH groupmay comprise a PUCCH SCell and one or more second SCells. Second UCIcorresponding to the PUCCH SCell and the one or more second SCells ofthe secondary PUCCH group may be transmitted by the PUCCH of the PUCCHSCell. The second UCI may be, for example, HARQ feedback for downlinktransmissions via downlink CCs of the PUCCH SCell and the one or moresecond SCells.

FIG. 12A, FIG. 12B and FIG. 12C show example random access processes inaccordance with several of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 12A shows an example of four step contention-basedrandom access (CBRA) procedure. The four-step CBRA procedure includesexchanging four messages between a UE and a base station. Msg1 may befor transmission (or retransmission) of a random access preamble by thewireless device to the base station. Msg2 may be the random accessresponse (RAR) by the base station to the wireless device. Msg3 is thescheduled transmission based on an uplink grant indicated in Msg2 andMsg4 may be for contention resolution.

The base station may transmit one or more RRC messages comprisingconfiguration parameters of the random access parameters. The randomaccess parameters may indicate radio resources (e.g., time-frequencyresources) for transmission of the random access preamble (e.g., Msg1),configuration index, one or more parameters for determining the power ofthe random access preamble (e.g., a power ramping parameter, a preamblereceived target power, etc.), a parameter indicating maximum number ofpreamble transmission, RAR window for monitoring RAR, cell-specificrandom access parameters and UE specific random access parameters. TheUE-specific random access parameters may indicate one or more PRACHoccasions for random access preamble (e.g., Msg1) transmissions. Therandom access parameters may indicate association between the PRACHoccasions and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS). Therandom access parameters may further indicate association between therandom access preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SBB orCSI-RS). The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSB(s) orCSI-RS(s)) and may determine a random access preamble to use for Msg1transmission based on the association between the random accesspreambles and the one or more reference signals. The UE may use one ormore reference signals (e.g., SSB(s) or CSI-RS(s)) and may determine thePRACH occasion to use for Msg1 transmission based on the associationbetween the PRACH occasions and the reference signals. The UE mayperform a retransmission of the random access preamble if no response isreceived with the RAR window following the transmission of the preamble.UE may use a higher transmission power for retransmission of thepreamble. UE may determine the higher transmission power of the preamblebased on the power ramping parameter.

Msg2 is for transmission of RAR by the base station. Msg2 may comprise aplurality of RARs corresponding to a plurality of random accesspreambles transmitted by a plurality of UEs. Msg2 may be associated witha random access temporary radio identifier (RA-RNTI) and may be receivedin a common search space of the UE. The RA-RNTI may be based on thePRACH occasion (e.g., time and frequency resources of a PRACH) in whicha random access preamble is transmitted. RAR may comprise a timingadvance command for uplink timing adjustment at the UE, an uplink grantfor transmission of Msg3 and a temporary C-RNTI. In response to thesuccessful reception of Msg2, the UE may transmit the Msg3. Msg3 andMsg4 may enable contention resolution in case of CBRA. In a CBRA, aplurality of UEs may transmit the same random access preamble and mayconsider the same RAR as being corresponding to them. UE may include adevice identifier in Msg3 (e.g., a C-RNTI, temporary C-RNTI or other UEidentity). Base station may transmit the Msg4 with a PDSCH and UE mayassume that the contention resolution is successful in response to thePDSCH used for transmission of Msg4 being associated with the UEidentifier included in Msg3.

FIG. 12B shows an example of a contention-free random access (CFRA)process. Msg 1 (random access preamble) and Msg 2 (random accessresponse) in FIG. 12B for CFRA may be analogous to Msg 1 and Msg 2 inFIG. 12A for CBRA. In an example, the CFRA procedure may be initiated inresponse to a PDCCH order from a base station. The PDCCH order forinitiating the CFRA procedure by the wireless device may be based on aDCI having a first format (e.g., format 1_0). The DCI for the PDCCHorder may comprise a random access preamble index, an UL/SUL indicatorindicating an uplink carrier of a cell (e.g., normal uplink carrier orsupplementary uplink carrier) for transmission of the random accesspreamble, a SS/PBCH index indicating the SS/PBCH that may be used todetermine a RACH occasion for PRACH transmission, a PRACH mask indexindicating the RACH occasion associated with the SS/PBCH indicated bythe SS/PBCH index for PRACH transmission, etc. In an example, the CFRAprocess may be started in response to a beam failure recovery process.The wireless device may start the CFRA for the beam failure recoverywithout a command (e.g., PDCCH order) from the base station and by usingthe wireless device dedicated resources.

FIG. 12C shows an example of a two-step random access process comprisingtwo messages exchanged between a wireless device and a base station. MsgA may be transmitted by the wireless device to the base station and maycomprise one or more transmissions of a preamble and/or one or moretransmissions of a transport block. The transport block in Msg A and Msg3 in FIG. 12A may have similar and/or equivalent contents. The transportblock of Msg A may comprise data and control information (e.g., SR, HARQfeedback, etc.). In response to the transmission of Msg A, the wirelessdevice may receive Msg B from the base station. Msg B in FIG. 12C andMsg 2 (e.g., RAR) illustrated in FIGS. 12A and 12B may have similarand/or equivalent content.

The base station may periodically transmit synchronization signals(SSs), e.g., primary SS (PSS) and secondary SS (SSS) along with PBCH oneach NR cell. The PSS/SSS together with PBCH is jointly referred to as aSS/PBCH block. The SS/PBCH block enables a wireless device to find acell when entering to the mobile communications network or find newcells when moving within the network. The SS/PBCH block spans four OFDMsymbols in time domain. The PSS is transmitted in the first symbol andoccupies 127 subcarriers in frequency domain. The SSS is transmitted inthe third OFDM symbol and occupies the same 127 subcarriers as the PSS.There are eight and nine empty subcarriers on each side of the SSS. ThePBCH is transmitted on the second OFDM symbol occupying 240 subcarriers,the third OFDM symbol occupying 48 subcarriers on each side of the SSS,and on the fourth OFDM symbol occupying 240 subcarriers. Some of thePBCH resources indicated above may be used for transmission of thedemodulation reference signal (DMRS) for coherent demodulation of thePBCH. The SS/PBCH block is transmitted periodically with a periodranging from 5 ms to 160 ms. For initial cell search or for cell searchduring inactive/idle state, a wireless device may assume that that theSS/PBCH block is repeated at least every 20 ms.

In NR, transmissions using of antenna arrays, with many antennaelements, and beamforming plays an important role specially in higherfrequency bands. Beamforming enables higher capacity by increasing thesignal strength (e.g., by focusing the signal energy in a specificdirection) and by lowering the amount interference received at thewireless devices. The beamforming techniques may generally be divided toanalog beamforming and digital beamforming techniques. With digitalbeamforming, signal processing for beamforming is carried out in thedigital domain before digital-to-analog conversion and detailed controlof both amplitude and phase of different antenna elements may bepossible. With analog beamforming, the signal processing for beamformingis carried out in the analog domain and after the digital to analogconversion. The beamformed transmissions may be in one direction at atime. For example, the wireless devices that are in different directionsrelative to the base station may receive their downlink transmissions atdifferent times. For analog receiver-side beamforming, the receiver mayfocus its receiver beam in one direction at a time.

In NR, the base station may use beam sweeping for transmission ofSS/PBCH blocks. The SS/PBCH blocks may be transmitted in different beamsusing time multiplexing. The set of SS/PBCH blocks that are transmittedin one beam sweep may be referred to as a SS/PBCH block set. The periodof PBCH/SSB block transmission may be a time duration between a SS/PBCHblock transmission in a beam and the next SS/PBCH block transmission inthe same beam. The period of SS/PBCH block is, therefore, also theperiod of the SS/PBCH block set.

FIG. 13A shows example time and frequency structure of SS/PBCH blocksand their associations with beams in accordance with several of variousembodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a SS/PBCH block(also referred to as SSB) set comprise L SSBs wherein an SSB in the SSBset is associated with (e.g., transmitted in) one of L beams of a cell.The transmission of SBBs of an SSB set may be confined within a 5 msinterval, either in a first half-frame or a second half-frame of a 10 msframe. The number of SSBs in an SSB set may depend on the frequency bandof operation. For example, the number of SSBs in a SSB set may be up tofour SSBs in frequency bands below 3 GHz enabling beam sweeping of up tofour beams, up to eight SSBs in frequency bands between 3 GHz and 6 GHzenabling beam sweeping of up to eight beams, and up to sixty four SSBsin higher frequency bands enabling beam sweeping of up to sixty fourbeams. The SSs of an SSB may depend on a physical cell identity (PCI) ofthe cell and may be independent of which beam of the cell is used fortransmission of the SSB. The PBCH of an SSB may indicate a time indexparameter and the wireless device may determine the relative position ofthe SSB within the SSB set using the time index parameter. The wirelessdevice may use the relative position of the SSB within an SSB set fordetermining the frame timing and/or determining RACH occasions for arandom access process.

A wireless device entering the mobile communications network may firstsearch for the PSS. After detecting the PSS, the wireless device maydetermine the synchronization up to the periodicity of the PSS. Bydetecting the PSS, the wireless device may determine the transmissiontiming of the SSS. The wireless device may determine the PCI of the cellafter detecting the SSS. The PBCH of a SS/PBCH block is a downlinkphysical channel that carries the MIB. The MIB may be used by thewireless device to obtain remaining system information (RMSI) that isbroadcast by the network. The RMSI may include System Information Block1 (SIB1) that contains information required for the wireless device toaccess the cell.

As discussed earlier, the wireless device may determine a time indexparameter from the SSB. The PBCH comprises a half-frame parameterindicating whether the SSB is in the first 5 ms half or the second 5 mshalf of a 10 ms frame. The wireless device may determine the frameboundary using the time index parameter and the half-frame parameter. Inaddition, the PBCH may comprise a parameter indicating the system framenumber (SFN) of the cell.

The base station may transmit CSI-RS and a UE may measure the CSI-RS toobtain channel state information (CSI). The base station may configurethe CSI-RS in a UE-specific manner. In some scenarios, same set ofCSI-RS resources may be configured for multiple UEs and one or moreresource elements of a CSI-RS resource may be shared among multiple UEs.A CSI-RS resource may be configured such that it does not collide with aCORESET configured for the wireless device and/or with a DMRS of a PDSCHscheduled for the wireless device and/or transmitted SSBs. The UE maymeasure one or more CSI-RSs configured for the UE and may generate a CSIreport based on the CSI-RS measurements and may transmit the CSI reportto the base station for scheduling, link adaptation and/or otherpurposes.

NR supports flexible CSI-RS configurations. A CSI-RS resource may beconfigured with single or multiple antenna ports and with configurabledensity. Based on the number of configured antenna ports, a CSI-RSresource may span different number of OFDM symbols (e.g., 1, 2, and 4symbols). The CSI-RS may be configured for a downlink BWP and may usethe numerology of the downlink BWP. The CSI-RS may be configured tocover the full bandwidth of the downlink BWP or a portion of thedownlink BWP. In some case, the CSI-RS may be repeated in every resourceblock of the CSI-RS bandwidth, referred to as CSI-RS with density equalto one. In some cases, the CSI-RS may be configured to be repeated inevery other resource block of the CSI-RS bandwidth. CSI-RS may benon-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS or zero-power (ZP) CSI-RS.

The base station may configure a wireless device with one or more setsof NZP CSI-RS resources. The base station may configure the wirelessdevice with a NZP CSI-RS resource set using an RRC information element(IE) NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet indicating a NZP CSI-RS resource setidentifier (ID) and parameters specific to the NZP CSI-RS resource set.An NZP CSI-RS resource set may comprise one or more CSI-RS resources. AnNZP CSI-RS resource set may be configured as part of the CSI measurementconfiguration.

The CSI-RS may be configured for periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodictransmission. In case of the periodic and semi-persistent CSI-RSconfigurations, the wireless device may be configured with a CSIresource periodicity and offset parameter that indicate a periodicityand corresponding offset in terms of number of slots. The wirelessdevice may determine the slots that the CSI-RSs are transmitted. Forsemi-persistent CSI-RS, the CSI-RS resources for CSI-RS transmissionsmay be activated and deactivated by using a semi-persistent (SP) CSI-CSIResource Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE. In response to receiving aMAC CE indicating activation of semi-persistent CSI-RS resources, thewireless device may assume that the CSI-RS transmissions will continueuntil the CSI-RS resources for CSI-RS transmissions are activated.

As discussed before, CSI-RS may be configured for a wireless device asNZP CSI-RS or ZP CSI-RS. The configuration of the ZP CSI-RS may besimilar to the NZP CSI-RS with the difference that the wireless devicemay not carry out measurements for the ZP CSI-RS. By configuring ZPCSI-RS, the wireless device may assume that a scheduled PDSCH thatincludes resource elements from the ZP CSI-RS is rate matched aroundthose ZP CSI-RS resources. For example, a ZP CSI-RS resource configuredfor a wireless device may be an NZP CSI-RS resource for another wirelessdevice. For example, by configuring ZP CSI-RS resources for the wirelessdevice, the base station may indicate to the wireless device that thePDSCH scheduled for the wireless device is rate matched around the ZPCSI-RS resources.

A base station may configure a wireless device with channel stateinformation interference measurement (CSI-IM) resources. Similar to theCSI-RS configuration, configuration of locations and density of CSI-IMresources may be flexible. The CSI-IM resources may be periodic(configured with a periodicity), semi-persistent (configured with aperiodicity and activated and deactivated by MAC CE) or aperiodic(triggered by a DCI).

Tracking reference signals (TRSs) may be configured for a wirelessdevice as a set of sparse reference signals to assist the wireless intime and frequency tracking and compensating time and frequencyvariations in its local oscillator. The wireless device may further usethe TRSs for estimating channel characteristics such as delay spread ordoppler frequency. The base station may use a CSI-RS configuration forconfiguring TRS for the wireless device. The TRS may be configured as aresource set comprising multiple periodic NZP CSI-RS resources.

A base station may configure a UE and the UE may transmit soundingreference signals (SRSs) to enable uplink channel sounding/estimation atthe base station. The SRS may support up to four antenna ports and maybe designed with low cubic metric enabling efficient operation of thewireless device amplifier. The SRS may span one or more (e.g., one, twoor four) consecutive OFDM symbols in time domain and may be locatedwithin the last n (e.g., six) symbols of a slot. In the frequencydomain, the SRS may have a structure that is referred to as a combstructure and may be transmitted on every Nth subcarrier. Different SRStransmissions from different wireless devices may have different combstructures and may be multiplexed in frequency domain.

A base station may configure a wireless device with one or more SRSresource sets and an SRS resource set may comprise one or more SRSresources. The SRS resources in an SRS resources set may be configuredfor periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodic transmission. The periodicSRS and the semi-persistent SRS resources may be configured withperiodicity and offset parameters. The Semi-persistent SRS resources ofa configured semi-persistent SRS resource set may be activated ordeactivated by a semi-persistent (SP) SRS Activation/Deactivation MACCE. The set of SRS resources included in an aperiodic SRS resource setmay be activated by a DCI. A value of a field (e.g., an SRS requestfield) in the DCI may indicate activation of resources in an aperiodicSRS resource set from a plurality of SRS resource sets configured forthe wireless device.

An antenna port may be associated with one or more reference signals.The receiver may assume that the one or more reference signals,associated with the antenna port, may be used for estimating channelcorresponding to the antenna port. The reference signals may be used toderive channel state information related to the antenna port. Twoantenna ports may be referred to as quasi co-located if characteristics(e.g., large-scale properties) of the channel over which a symbol isconveyed on one antenna port may be inferred from the channel over whicha symbol is conveyed from another antenna port. For example, a UE mayassume that radio channels corresponding to two different antenna portshave the same large-scale properties if the antenna ports are specifiedas quasi co-located. In some cases, the UE may assume that two antennaports are quasi co-located based on signaling received from the basestation. Spatial quasi-colocation (QCL) between two signals may be, forexample, due to the two signals being transmitted from the same locationand in the same beam. If a receive beam is good for a signal in a groupof signals that are spatially quasi co-located, it may be assumed alsobe good for the other signals in the group of signals.

The CSI-RS in the downlink and the SRS in uplink may serve asquasi-location (QCL) reference for other physical downlink channels andphysical uplink channels, respectively. For example, a downlink physicalchannel (e.g., PDSCH or PDCCH) may be spatially quasi co-located with adownlink reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS or SSB). The wireless device maydetermine a receive beam based on measurement on the downlink referencesignal and may assume that the determined received beam is also good forreception of the physical channels (e.g., PDSCH or PDCCH) that arespatially quasi co-located with the downlink reference signal.Similarly, an uplink physical channel (e.g., PUSCH or PUCCH) may bespatially quasi co-located with an uplink reference signal (e.g., SRS).The base station may determine a receive beam based on measurement onthe uplink reference signal and may assume that the determined receivedbeam is also good for reception of the physical channels (e.g., PUSCH orPUCCH) that are spatially quasi co-located with the uplink referencesignal.

The Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RSs) enables channel estimationfor coherent demodulation of downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH,PDCCH and PBH) and uplink physical channels (e.g., PUSCH and PUCCH). TheDM-RS may be located early in the transmission (e.g., front-loadedDM-RS) and may enable the receiver to obtain the channel estimate earlyand reduce the latency. The time-domain structure of the DM-RS (e.g.,symbols wherein the DM-RS are located in a slot) may be based ondifferent mapping types.

The Phase Tracking Reference Signals (PT-RSs) enables tracking andcompensation of phase variations across the transmission duration. Thephase variations may be, for example, due to oscillator phase noise. Theoscillator phase noise may become more sever in higher frequencies(e.g., mmWave frequency bands). The base station may configure the PT-RSfor uplink and/or downlink. The PT-RS configuration parameters mayindicate frequency and time density of PT-RS, maximum number of ports(e.g., uplink ports), resource element offset, configuration of uplinkPT-RS without transform precoder (e.g., CP-OFDM) or with transformprecoder (e.g., DFT-s-OFDM), etc. The subcarrier number and/or resourceblocks used for PT-RS transmission may be based on the C-RNTI of thewireless device to reduce risk of collisions between PT-RSs of wirelessdevices scheduled on overlapping frequency domain resources.

FIG. 13B shows example time and frequency structure of CSI-RSs and theirassociation with beams in accordance with several of various embodimentsof the present disclosure. A beam of the L beams shown in FIG. 13B maybe associated with a corresponding CSI-RS resource. The base station maytransmit the CSI-RSs using the configured CSI-RS resources and a UE maymeasure the CSI-RSs (e.g., received signal received power (RSRP) of theCSI-RSs) and report the CSI-RS measurements to the base station based ona reporting configuration. For example, the base station may determineone or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and mayindicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRCsignaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI statesindicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam andreceive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beamcorrespondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of atransmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receivebeam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedureto determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. The UE maytransmit one or more SRSs using the SRS resources configured for the UEand the base station may measure the SRSs and determine/select thetransmit beam for the UE based the SRS measurements. The base stationmay indicate the selected beam to the UE. The CSI-RS resources shown inFIG. 13B may be for one UE. The base station may configure differentCSI-RS resources associated with a given beam for different UEs by usingfrequency division multiplexing.

A base station and a wireless device may perform beam managementprocedures to establish beam pairs (e.g., transmit and receive beams)that jointly provide good connectivity. For example, in the downlinkdirection, the UE may perform measurements for a beam pair and estimatechannel quality for a transmit beam by the base station (or atransmission reception point (TRP) more generally) and the receive beamby the UE. The UE may transmit a report indicating beam pair qualityparameters. The report may comprise one or more parameters indicatingone or more beams (e.g., a beam index, an identifier of reference signalassociated with a beam, etc.), one or more measurement parameters (e.g.,RSRP), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator(CQI), and/or a rank indicator (RI).

FIG. 14A, FIG. 14B and FIG. 14C show example beam management processes(referred to as P1, P2 and P3, respectively) in accordance with severalof various embodiments of the present disclosure. The P1 process shownin FIG. 14A may enable, based on UE measurements, selection of a basestation (or TRP more generally) transmit beam and/or a wireless devicereceive beam. The TRP may perform a beam sweeping procedure where theTRP may sequentially transmit reference signals (e.g., SSB and/orCSI-RS) on a set of beams and the UE may select a beam from the set ofbeams and may report the selected beam to the TRP. The P2 procedure asshown in FIG. 14B may be a beam refinement procedure. The selection ofthe TRP transmit beam and the UE receive beam may be regularlyreevaluated due to movements and/or rotations of the UE or movement ofother objects. In an example, the base station may perform the beamsweeping procedure over a smaller set of beams and the UE may select thebest beam over the smaller set. In an example, the beam shape may benarrower compared to beam selected based on the P1 procedure. Using theP3 procedure as shown in FIG. 14C, the TRP may fix its transmit beam andthe UE may refine its receive beam.

A wireless device may receive one or more messages from a base station.The one or more messages may comprise one or more RRC messages. The oneor more messages may comprise configuration parameters of a plurality ofcells for the wireless device. The plurality of cells may comprise aprimary cell and one or more secondary cells. For example, the pluralityof cells may be provided by a base station and the wireless device maycommunicate with the base station using the plurality of cells. Forexample, the plurality of cells may be provided by multiple base station(e.g., in case of dual and/or multi-connectivity). The wireless devicemay communicate with a first base station, of the multiple basestations, using one or more first cells of the plurality of cells. Thewireless device may communicate with a second base station of themultiple base stations using one or more second cells of the pluralityof cells.

The one or more messages may comprise configuration parameters used forprocesses in physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, and/or RRC layers of thewireless device. For example, the configuration parameters may includevalues of timers used in physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, and/or RRClayers. For example, the configuration parameters may include parametersfor configurating different channels (e.g., physical layer channel,logical channels, RLC channels, etc.) and/or signals (e.g., CSI-RS, SRS,etc.).

Upon starting a timer, the timer may start running until the timer isstopped or until the timer expires. A timer may be restarted if it isrunning. A timer may be started if it is not running (e.g., after thetimer is stopped or after the timer expires). A timer may be configuredwith or may be associated with a value (e.g., an initial value). Thetimer may be started or restarted with the value of the timer. The valueof the timer may indicate a time duration that the timer may be runningupon being started or restarted and until the timer expires. Theduration of a timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped orexpires (e.g., due to BWP switching). This specification may disclose aprocess that includes one or more timers. The one or more timers may beimplemented in multiple ways. For example, a timer may be used by thewireless device and/or base station to determine a time window [t1, t2],wherein the timer is started at time t1 and expires at time t2 and thewireless device and/or the base station may be interested in and/ormonitor the time window [t1, t2], for example to receive a specificsignaling. Other examples of implementation of a timer may be provided.

FIG. 15 shows example components of a wireless device and a base stationthat are in communication via an air interface in accordance withseveral of various embodiments of the present disclosure. The wirelessdevice 1502 may communicate with the base station 1542 over the airinterface 1532. The wireless device 1502 may include a plurality ofantennas. The base station 1542 may include a plurality of antennas. Theplurality of antennas at the wireless device 1502 and/or the basestation 1542 enables different types of multiple antenna techniques suchas beamforming, single-user and/or multi-user MIMO, etc.

The wireless device 1502 and the base station 1542 may have one or moreof a plurality of modules/blocks, for example RF front end (e.g., RFfront end 1530 at the wireless device 1502 and RF front end 1570 at thebase station 1542), Data Processing System (e.g., Data Processing System1524 at the wireless device 1502 and Data Processing System 1564 at thebase station 1542), Memory (e.g., Memory 1512 at the wireless device1502 and Memory 1542 at the base station 1542). Additionally, thewireless device 1502 and the base station 1542 may have othermodules/blocks such as GPS (e.g., GPS 1514 at the wireless device 1502and GPS 1554 at the base station 1542).

An RF front end module/block may include circuitry between antennas anda Data Processing System for proper conversion of signals between thesetwo modules/blocks. An RF front end may include one or more filters(e.g., Filter(s) 1526 at RF front end 1530 or Filter(s) 1566 at the RFfront end 1570), one or more amplifiers (e.g., Amplifier(s) 1528 at theRF front end 1530 and Amplifier(s) 1568 at the RF front end 1570). TheAmplifier(s) may comprise power amplifier(s) for transmission andlow-noise amplifier(s) (LNA(s)) for reception.

The Data Processing System 1524 and the Data Processing System 1564 mayprocess the data to be transmitted or the received signals byimplementing functions at different layers of the protocol stack such asPHY, MAC, RLC, etc. Example PHY layer functions that may be implementedby the Data Processing System 1524 and/or 1564 may include forward errorcorrection, interleaving, rate matching, modulation, precoding, resourcemapping, MIMO processing, etc. Similarly, one or more functions of theMAC layer, RLC layer and/or other layers may be implemented by the DataProcessing System 1524 and/or the Data Processing System 1564. One ormore processes described in the present disclosure may be implemented bythe Data Processing System 1524 and/or the Data Processing System 1564.A Data Processing System may include an RF module (RF module 1516 at theData Processing System 1524 and RF module 1556 at the Data ProcessingSystem 1564) and/or a TX/RX processor (e.g., TX/RX processor 1518 at theData Processing System 1524 and TX/RX processor 1558 at the DataProcessing System 1566) and/or a central processing unit (CPU) (e.g.,CPU 1520 at the Data Processing System 1524 and CPU 1560 at the DataProcessing System 1564) and/or a graphical processing unit (GPU) (e.g.,GPU 1522 at the Data Processing System 1524 and GPU 1562 at the DataProcessing System 1564).

The Memory 1512 may have interfaces with the Data Processing System 1524and the Memory 1552 may have interfaces with Data Processing System1564, respectively. The Memory 1512 or the Memory 1552 may includenon-transitory computer readable mediums (e.g., Storage Medium 1510 atthe Memory 1512 and Storage Medium 1550 at the Memory 1552) that maystore software code or instructions that may be executed by the DataProcessing System 1524 and Data Processing System 1564, respectively, toimplement the processes described in the present disclosure. The Memory1512 or the Memory 1552 may include random-access memory (RAM) (e.g.,RAM 1506 at the Memory 1512 or RAM 1546 at the Memory 1552) or read-onlymemory (ROM) (e.g., ROM 1508 at the Memory 1512 or ROM 1548 at theMemory 1552) to store data and/or software codes.

The Data Processing System 1524 and/or the Data Processing System 1564may be connected to other components such as a GPS module 1514 and a GPSmodule 1554, respectively, wherein the GPS module 1514 and a GPS module1554 may enable delivery of location information of the wireless device1502 to the Data Processing System 1524 and location information of thebase station 1542 to the Data Processing System 1564. One or more otherperipheral components (e.g., Peripheral Component(s) 1504 or PeripheralComponent(s) 1544) may be configured and connected to the dataProcessing System 1524 and data Processing System 1564, respectively.

In example embodiments, a wireless device may be configured withparameters and/or configuration arrangements. For example, theconfiguration of the wireless device with parameters and/orconfiguration arrangements may be based on one or more control messagesthat may be used to configure the wireless device to implement processesand/or actions. The wireless device may be configured with theparameters and/or the configuration arrangements regardless of thewireless device being in operation or not in operation. For example,software, firmware, memory, hardware and/or a combination thereof and/oralike may be configured in a wireless device regardless of the wirelessdevice being in operation or not operation. The configured parametersand/or settings may influence the actions and/or processes performed bythe wireless device when in operation.

In example embodiments, a wireless device may receive one or moremessage comprising configuration parameters. For example, the one ormore messages may comprise radio resource control (RRC) messages. Aparameter of the configuration parameters may be in at least one of theone or more messages. The one or more messages may comprise informationelement (IEs). An information element may be a structural element thatincludes single or multiple fields. The fields in an IE may beindividual contents of the IE. The terms configuration parameter, IE andfield may be used equally in this disclosure. The IEs may be implementedusing a nested structure, wherein an IE may include one or more otherIEs and an IE of the one or more other IEs may include one or moreadditional IEs. With this structure, a parent IE contains all theoffspring IEs as well. For example, a first IE containing a second IE,the second IE containing a third IE, and the third IE containing afourth IE may imply that the first IE contains the third IE and thefourth IE.

In an example and for TDD configurations, dropping of SPS HARQ feedbackdue to collision/overlap of scheduled HARQ feedback transmission viaPUCCH with at least one DL or flexible symbol (e.g., determined based onslot format) may be avoided. In an example, to address SPS HARQ-ACKdropping for TDD systems, a HARQ feedback may be deferred until a next(e.g., first) available PUCCH. In an example, to address SPS HARQ-ACKdropping for TDD systems, a one-shot/Type-3 codebook type may bedynamically triggered.

In an example, deferring of SPS HARQ-ACK dropped due to TDD specificcollisions until a next available PUCCH may be based on semi-staticconfiguration of slot format. In an example, semi-statically configuredflexible symbols may be considered for PUCCH availability.

In an example, SPS HARQ-ACK deferral may be jointly configured per PUCCHcell group. Any SPS HARQ-ACK within a PUCCH cell group may be subject todeferral. In an example, the SPS HARQ-ACK deferral may be configured perSPS configuration.

In an example, for SPS HARQ-ACK, the deferral from the initialslot/sub-slot determined by k1 in the activation DCI to the targetslot/sub-slot determined by k1+k1_(def), the UE may check the validityof a target slot/sub-slot evaluating from one slot/sub-slot to the nextsub/sub-slot (e.g., in principle k1_(def) granularity may be oneslot/sub-slot). In an example, there may be a limit on the minimumdeferral considered the required UE processing (k1_(def)≥0). In anexample, there may be a limit on the maximum deferral.

In an example, for SPS HARQ-ACK deferral, for the determination of validsymbols in the initial slot/sub-slot a collision with semi-static DLsymbols, SSB and CORESET #0 may be regarded as ‘invalid’ or ‘no symbolsfor UL transmission’.

In an example, for SPS HARQ-ACK deferral, a limit on the maximumdeferral of SPS

HARQ in terms of k1_(def) or k1+k1_(def) may be considered. In anexample, the limitation may be given by a maximum value of k1_(def) or amaximum of k1_(eff)=k1+k1_(def).

In an example, for SPS HARQ-ACK deferral, there may be no lower limitdefined for k1_(def).

In an example, to handle the collision for the same HARQ process due todeferred SPS HARQ-ACK, in case the UE receives PDSCH of a certain HARQProcess ID, the deferred SPS HARQ bit(s) for this HARQ Process ID may bedropped.

In an example, simultaneous PUSCH/PUCCH transmission may besupported/allowed within a cell group. For example, a wireless devicemay receive a configuration parameter that may indicate whethersimultaneous PUSCH/PUCCH is supported/allowed within a cell group.

In an example, HARQ-ACK multiplexing on PUSCH may be in a sub-slotbasis.

In an example, a SPS HARQ may be skipped for a skipped PDSCHtransmission.

In an example, PUCCH (at least for HARQ feedback) may be repeated in asub-slot basis.

In an example, a cancelled HARQ feedback may be retransmitted in a latertiming.

In an example, for PUCCH carrier switching for HARQ feedbacktransmission, PUCCH carrier switching may be considered for cells thatare part of the active uplink carrier aggregation (CA) configuration.

In an example, for SPS HARQ skipping for skipped SPS PDSCH, ‘NACKskipping’ for (skipped) SPS PDSCH may be used.

In an example, for SPS HARQ skipping for skipped SPS PDSCH, skipped SPSPDSCH occasions may be dynamically indicated.

In an example, for SPS HARQ payload size reduction (of non-skipped SPSPDSCH), one or more of the following may be used: ACK skipping, NACKskipping (e.g., ACK-only transmission), HARQ bundling/compression,HARQ-ACK disabling/skipping for certain SPS configurations (for example,the skipping/disabling may be higher-layer configured per SPSconfiguration).

In an example, for SPS HARQ-ACK deferral, the initial HARQ-ACKtransmission occasion may be considered to determine the out-of-orderHARQ condition.

In an example, the MAC entity may be configured by RRC with a DRXfunctionality that controls the UE's PDCCH monitoring activity for aplurality of the MAC entity's RNTIs (e.g., C-RNTI, CI-RNTI, CS-RNTI,INT-RNTI, SFI-RNTI, SP-CSI-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI,TPC-SRS-RNTI, and AI-RNTI). When in RRC_CONNECTED and if DRX isconfigured, the MAC entity may monitor the PDCCH discontinuously usingthe DRX operation for the activated Serving Cells.

In an example, RRC may control DRX operation by configuring thefollowing parameters: drx-onDurationTimer (e.g., the duration at thebeginning of a DRX cycle); drx-SlotOffset (e.g., the delay beforestarting the drx-onDurationTimer); drx-InactivityTimer (e.g., theduration after the PDCCH occasion in which a PDCCH indicates a new UL orDL transmission for the MAC entity); drx-RetransmissionTimerDL (per DLHARQ process except for the broadcast process, e.g. the maximum durationuntil a DL retransmission is received); drx-RetransmissionTimerUL (perUL HARQ process, e.g., the maximum duration until a grant for ULretransmission is received); drx-LongCycleStartOffset (e.g., the LongDRX cycle and drx-StartOffset which may define the subframe where theLong and Short DRX cycle starts); drx-ShortCycle (e.g., the Short DRXcycle); drx-ShortCycleTimer (e.g., the duration the UE may follow theShort DRX cycle); drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL (per DL HARQ process except forthe broadcast process, e.g., the minimum duration before a DL assignmentfor HARQ retransmission is expected by the MAC entity);drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL (per UL HARQ process, e.g., the minimum durationbefore a UL HARQ retransmission grant is expected by the MAC entity).

In an example, serving Cells of a MAC entity may be configured by RRC ina plurality (e.g., two) DRX groups with separate DRX parameters. WhenRRC does not configure a secondary DRX group, there may be one DRX groupand all Serving Cells may belong to that one DRX group. When two DRXgroups are configured, each Serving Cell may uniquely be assigned toeither of the two groups. The DRX parameters that may be separatelyconfigured for each DRX group may be: drx-onDurationTimer,drx-InactivityTimer. The DRX parameters that may be common to the DRXgroups may be: drx-SlotOffset, drx-RetransmissionTimerDL,drx-RetransmissionTimerUL, drx-LongCycleStartOffset, drx-ShortCycle,drx-ShortCycleTimer, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL, and drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL.

In an example, when a DRX cycle is configured, the Active Time forServing Cells in a DRX group may include the time while:drx-onDurationTimer or drx-InactivityTimer configured for the DRX groupis running; or drx-RetransmissionTimerDL or drx-RetransmissionTimerUL isrunning on any Serving Cell in the DRX group; orra-ContentionResolutionTimer or msgB-ResponseWindow is running; or aScheduling Request is sent on PUCCH and is pending; or a PDCCHindicating a new transmission addressed to the C-RNTI of the MAC entityhas not been received after successful reception of a Random AccessResponse for the Random Access Preamble not selected by the MAC entityamong the contention-based Random Access Preamble.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a MAC PDU is received in aconfigured downlink assignment: the MAC entity may start thedrx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL for the corresponding HARQ process in the firstsymbol after the end of the corresponding transmission carrying the DLHARQ feedback; and the MAC entity may stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerDLfor the corresponding HARQ process.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a MAC PDU is transmitted in aconfigured uplink grant and LBT failure indication is not received fromlower layers: the MAC entity may start the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL for thecorresponding HARQ process in the first symbol after the end of thefirst transmission (within a bundle) of the corresponding PUSCHtransmission; and the MAC entity may stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerULfor the corresponding HARQ process at the first transmission (within abundle) of the corresponding PUSCH transmission.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDLexpires: if the data of the corresponding HARQ process was notsuccessfully decoded: the MAC entity may start thedrx-RetransmissionTimerDL for the corresponding HARQ process in thefirst symbol after the expiry of drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerULexpires: the MAC entity may start the drx-RetransmissionTimerUL for thecorresponding HARQ process in the first symbol after the expiry ofdrx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a DRX Command MAC CE or a LongDRX Command MAC CE is received: the MAC entity may stopdrx-onDurationTimer for each DRX group; and the MAC entity may stopdrx-InactivityTimer for each DRX group.

In an example, when DRX is configured, drx-InactivityTimer for a DRXgroup may expires. If the Short DRX cycle is configured, the MAC entitymay start or restart drx-ShortCycleTimer for this DRX group in the firstsymbol after the expiry of drx-InactivityTimer; and the MAC entity mayuse the Short DRX cycle for this DRX group. Otherwise, the MAC entitymay use the Long DRX cycle for this DRX group.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a DRX Command MAC CE isreceived, the MAC entity may start or restart drx-ShortCycleTimer foreach DRX group in the first symbol after the end of DRX Command MAC CEreception; and the MAC entity may use the Short DRX cycle for each DRXgroup. Otherwise, the MAC entity may use the Long DRX cycle for each DRXgroup.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if drx-ShortCycleTimer for a DRXgroup expires: the MAC entity may use the Long DRX cycle for this DRXgroup.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if a Long DRX Command MAC CE isreceived: the MAC entity may stop drx-ShortCycleTimer for each DRXgroup; and the MAC entity may use the Long DRX cycle for each DRX group.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if the Short DRX cycle is usedfor a DRX group, and [(SFN×10)+subframe number] modulo(drx-ShortCycle)=(drx-StartOffset) modulo (drx-ShortCycle): the MACentity may start drx-onDurationTimer for this DRX group afterdrx-SlotOffset from the beginning of the subframe.

In an example, when DRX is configured, if the Long DRX cycle is used fora DRX group, and [(SFN×10)+subframe number] modulo(drx-LongCycle)=drx-StartOffset: the MAC entity may startdrx-onDurationTimer for this DRX group after drx-SlotOffset from thebeginning of the subframe.

In an example, when DRX is configured, a DRX group may be in ActiveTime. The MAC entity may monitor the PDCCH on the Serving Cells in thisDRX group. If the PDCCH indicates a DL transmission: the MAC entity maystart the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL for the corresponding HARQ process in thefirst symbol after the end of the corresponding transmission carryingthe DL HARQ feedback. When HARQ feedback is postponed byPDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicating a non-numerical k1 value, thecorresponding transmission opportunity to send the DL HARQ feedback maybe indicated in a later PDCCH requesting the HARQ-ACK feedback. The MACentity may stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL for the corresponding HARQprocess. If the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicate a non-numericalk1 value, the MAC entity may start the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL in thefirst symbol after the PDSCH transmission for the corresponding HARQprocess.

In an example, when DRX is configured, a DRX group may be in ActiveTime. If the PDCCH indicates a UL transmission: the MAC entity may startthe drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process in the firstsymbol after the end of the first transmission (within a bundle) of thecorresponding PUSCH transmission. The MAC entity may stop thedrx-RetransmissionTimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process.

In an example, when DRX is configured, a DRX group may be in ActiveTime. If the PDCCH indicates a new transmission (DL or UL) on a ServingCell in this DRX group: the MAC entity may start or restartdrx-InactivityTimer for this DRX group in the first symbol after the endof the PDCCH reception.

In an example, when DRX is configured, a DRX group may be in ActiveTime. If a HARQ process receives downlink feedback information andacknowledgement is indicated: the MAC entity may stop thedrx-RetransmissionTimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process.

In an example, an IE DRX-Config may be used to configure DRX relatedparameters. A field/parameter drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL may indicate a valuein number of symbols of the BWP where the transport block was received.A field/parameter drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL may indicate a value in number ofsymbols of the BWP where the transport block was transmitted. Afield/parameter drx-InactivityTimer may indicate a value in multipleintegers of 1 ms. A field/parameter drx-LongCycleStartOffset mayindicate drx-LongCycle in ms and drx-StartOffset in multiples of 1 ms.If drx-ShortCycle is configured, the value of drx-LongCycle may be amultiple of the drx-ShortCycle value. A field/parameterdrx-onDurationTimer may indicate a value in multiples of 1/32 ms(subMilliSeconds) or in ms (milliSecond). A field/parameterdrx-RetransmissionTimerDL may indicate a value in number of slot lengthsof the BWP where the transport block was received. A field/parameterdrx-RetransmissionTimerUL may indicate a value in number of slot lengthsof the BWP where the transport block was transmitted. A field/parameterdrx-ShortCycleTimer may indicate a value in multiples of drx-ShortCycle.A field/parameter drx-ShortCycle may indicate a value in ms. Afield/parameter drx-SlotOffset may indicate a value in 1/32 ms.

In an example, the IE SPS-Config may be used to configure downlinksemi-persistent transmission. Multiple Downlink SPS configurations maybe configured in one BWP of a serving cell. A field/parameterharq-CodebookID may indicate the HARQ-ACK codebook index for thecorresponding HARQ-ACK codebook for SPS PDSCH and ACK for SPS PDSCHrelease. A field/parameter harq-ProcID-Offset may indicate the offsetused in deriving the HARQ process IDs. A field/parameter mcs-Table mayindicate the MCS table the UE may use for DL SPS. A field/parametern1PUCCH-AN may indicate a HARQ resource for PUCCH for DL SPS. Afield/parameter nrofHARQ-Processes may indicate a number of configuredHARQ processes for SPS DL. A field/parameter pdsch-AggregationFactor mayindicate number of repetitions for SPS PDSCH. When the field is absent,the UE may apply PDSCH aggregation factor of PDSCH-Config. Afield/parameter periodicity may indicate periodicity for DL SPS. Afield/parameter sps-ConfigIndex may indicate the index of one ofmultiple SPS configurations.

In an example, an IE SPS-ConfigIndex may be used to indicate the indexof one of multiple DL SPS configurations in one BWP. Semi-PersistentScheduling (SPS) may be configured by RRC for a Serving Cell per BWP.Multiple assignments may be active simultaneously in the same BWP.Activation and deactivation of the DL SPS may be independent among theServing Cells.

In an example, for the DL SPS, a DL assignment may be provided by PDCCH,and stored or cleared based on L1 signaling indicating SPS activation ordeactivation.

In an example, RRC may configure the following parameters when the SPSis configured: cs-RNTI: CS-RNTI for activation, deactivation, andretransmission; nrofHARQ-Processes: indicating the number of configuredHARQ processes for SPS; harq-ProcID-Offset: indicating offset of HARQprocess for SPS; periodicity: periodicity of configured downlinkassignment for SPS.

In an example, when the SPS is released by upper layers, thecorresponding configurations may be released.

In an example, after a downlink assignment is configured for SPS, theMAC entity may consider sequentially that the N^(th) downlink assignmentoccurs in the slot for which:(numberOfSlotsPerFrame×SFN+slot number in theframe)=[(numberOfSlotsPerFrame×SFN_(start time)+slot_(start time))+N×periodicity×numberOfSlotsPerFrame/10]modulo(1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame)where SFN_(start time) and slot_(start time) are the SFN and slot,respectively, of the first transmission of PDSCH where the configureddownlink assignment was (re-)initialized.

In an example, an IE SlotFormatCombinationsPerCell may be used toconfigure the SlotFormatCombinations applicable for one serving cell. Afield/parameter slotFormatCombinationId may indicate an ID used in theDCI payload to dynamically select this SlotFormatCombination. Afield/parameter slotFormats may indicate slot formats that occur inconsecutive slots in time domain order. A field/parameterenableConfiguredUL, if configured, the UE may be allowed to transmituplink signals (SRS, PUCCH, CG-PUSCH) in the set of symbols of the slotwhen the UE does not detect a DCI format 2_0 providing a slot format forthe set of symbols. A field/parameter positionInDCI may indicate the(starting) position (bit) of the slotFormatCombinationId (SFI-Index) forthis serving cell (servingCellId) within the DCI payload. Afield/parameter servingCellId may indicate the ID of the serving cellfor which the slotFormatCombinations are applicable. A field/parameterslotFormatCombinations may indicate a list with SlotFormatCombinations.Each SlotFormatCombination may comprise of one or more SlotFormats. Afield/parameter subcarrierSpacing2 may indicate a reference subcarrierspacing for a Slot Format Combination on an FDD or SUL cell. Afield/parameter subcarrierSpacing may indicate a reference subcarrierspacing for this Slot Format Combination.

In an example, an IE SlotFormatIndicator may be used to configuremonitoring a Group-Common-PDCCH for Slot-Format-Indicators (SFI).

In an example, for a serving cell in the set of serving cells, the UEmay be provided: an identity of the serving cell by servingCellId; alocation of a SFI-index field in DCI format 2_0 by positionInDCI; a setof slot format combinations by slotFormatCombinations, where each slotformat combination in the set of slot format combinations includes oneor more slot formats indicated by a respective slotFormats for the slotformat combination, and a mapping for the slot format combinationprovided by slotFormats to a corresponding SFI-index field value in DCIformat 2_0 provided by slotFormatCombinationId.

In an example, an IE ControlResourceSetZero may be used to configureCORESET #0 of the initial BWP.

In an example, an IE PDCCH-ConfigCommon may be used to configure cellspecific PDCCH parameters provided in SIB as well as in dedicatedsignaling.

In an example, an IE commonControlResourceSet may indicate an additionalcommon control resource set which may be configured and used for anycommon or UE-specific search space. If the network configures thisfield, it may use a ControlResourceSetId other than 0 for thisControlResourceSet. The network may configure thecommonControlResourceSet in SIB1 so that it is contained in thebandwidth of CORESET #0. In an example, a field/parametercontrolResourceSetZero may indicate parameters of the common CORESET #0which may be used in any common or UE-specific search spaces. In anexample, a field/parameter searchSpaceZero may indicate parameters ofthe common SearchSpace #0.

In an example, RRC may configure the following parameters for themaintenance of UL time alignment: timeAlignmentTimer (per time alignmentgroup (TAG)) which may control how long the MAC entity may consider theServing Cells belonging to the associated TAG to be uplink time aligned.

In an example, when a Timing Advance Command MAC CE is received, and ifan NTA has been maintained with the indicated TAG: the MAC entity mayapply the Timing Advance Command for the indicated TAG; and the MACentity may start or restart the timeAlignmentTimer associated with theindicated TAG.

In an example, a Timing Advance Command may be received in a RandomAccess Response message for a Serving Cell belonging to a TAG or in aMSGB for an SpCell. If the Random Access Preamble was not selected bythe MAC entity among the contention-based Random Access Preamble: theMAC entity may apply the Timing Advance Command for this TAG; and theMAC entity may start or restart the timeAlignmentTimer associated withthis TAG. Otherwise, if the timeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAGis not running: the MAC entity may apply the Timing Advance Command forthis TAG; and may start the timeAlignmentTimer associated with this TAG.When the Contention Resolution is considered not successful or aftertransmitting HARQ feedback for MAC PDU including UE ContentionResolution Identity MAC CE: the MAC entity may stop timeAlignmentTimerassociated with this TAG. Otherwise, the MAC entity may ignore thereceived Timing Advance Command.

In an example, when an Absolute Timing Advance Command is received inresponse to a MSGA transmission including C-RNTI MAC CE, the MAC entitymay apply the Timing Advance Command for PTAG; and may start or restartthe timeAlignmentTimer associated with PTAG.

In an example, a timeAlignmentTimer may be expired. If thetimeAlignmentTimer is associated with the PTAG: the MAC entity may flushHARQ buffers for all Serving Cells; notify RRC to release PUCCH for allServing Cells, if configured; notify RRC to release SRS for all ServingCells, if configured; clear configured downlink assignments andconfigured uplink grants; consider running timeAlignmentTimers asexpired; and maintain NTA of all TAGs. If the timeAlignmentTimer isassociated with an STAG, then for all Serving Cells belonging to thisTAG: the MAC entity may flush all HARQ buffers; notify RRC to releasePUCCH, if configured; notify RRC to release SRS, if configured; clearany configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants; clearany PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting; and maintain NTAof this TAG.

In an example, when the MAC entity stops uplink transmissions for anSCell due to the fact that the maximum uplink transmission timingdifference between TAGs of the MAC entity or the maximum uplinktransmission timing difference between TAGs of any MAC entity of the UEis exceeded, the MAC entity may consider the timeAlignmentTimerassociated with the SCell as expired.

In an example, the MAC entity may not perform any uplink transmission ona Serving Cell except the Random Access Preamble and MSGA transmissionwhen the timeAlignmentTimer associated with the TAG to which thisServing Cell belongs is not running. Furthermore, when thetimeAlignmentTimer associated with the PTAG is not running, the MACentity may not perform any uplink transmission on any Serving Cellexcept the Random Access Preamble and MSGA transmission on the SpCell.

In an example, a Timing Advance Command MAC CE may be identified by MACsubheader with a corresponding logical channel identifier (LCID). In anexample, the Timing Advance Command MAC CE may have a fixed size and maycomprise a single octet as shown in FIG. 16 . A TAG Identity (TAG ID)field may indicate the TAG Identity of the addressed TAG. In an example,a TAG containing the SpCell may have the TAG Identity 0. The length ofthe field may be 2 bits. A Timing Advance Command field may indicate theindex value TA (0, 1, 2 . . . 63) used to control the amount of timingadjustment that MAC entity may have to apply. In an example, the lengthof the Timing Advance Command field may be 6 bits.

In an example, a later PDSCH (e.g., a SPS PDSCH) with a given HARQprocess may be transmitted before the feedback of an early PDSCH (e.g.,SPS PDSCH) with the same HARQ process. An example is shown in FIG. 17 .HARQ process 0 of SPS configuration 1 may be transmitted in slot n, andthe corresponding HARQ feedback may be deferred to slot n+4. The sameHARQ process of SPS configuration 2 may be transmitted slot n+2.

In an example, if the HARQ feedback corresponding to a first PDSCH(e.g., first SPS PDSCH) with a given HARQ process is transmitted in slotj, and a second PDSCH (e.g., second SPS PDSCH) with the same HARQprocess is transmitted before slot j, the wireless device may drop theHARQ feedback information corresponding to the first PDSCH (e.g., thefirst SPS PDSCH). In an example, no HARQ feedback may be transmitted forthe first PDSCH (e.g., the first SPS PDSCH).

In an example, if HARQ feedback corresponding to a first PDSCH (e.g.,first SPS PDSCH) with a given HARQ process is deferred to slot j, and asecond PDSCH (e.g., second SPS PDSCH) with the same HARQ process istransmitted before slot j, the wireless device may drop the HARQfeedback information corresponding to the first PDSCH (e.g., first SPSPDSCH) and may be

A HARQ feedback, associated with a downlink transport block, may beskipped or may be deferred due to a scheduled timing (e.g.,slot/sub-slot) of the HARQ feedback not being available or valid fortransmission of the HARQ feedback. Existing wireless device and/orwireless network processes (such as DRX, wireless device feedback, etc.)may lead to inefficient wireless device and wireless networkperformance. There is a need to enhance the exiting wireless deviceand/or wireless network processes (such as DRX, wireless devicefeedback, etc.). Example embodiments enhance the existing wirelessdevice and/or wireless network processes.

In example embodiments, a wireless device may receive one or moremessages (e.g., one or more RRC messages) comprising configurationparameters of one or more cells. In an example with carrier aggregation,the one or more cells may comprise a primary cell and one or moresecondary cells. In an example, the one or more cells may be provided byone base station (e.g., in case of single connectivity) or may beprovided by a plurality of base stations (e.g., in case ofmulti-connectivity, e.g., dual connectivity in case of two basestations). The configuration parameters may comprise discontinuousreception (DRX) configuration parameters. The DRX configurationparameters may comprise a first parameter indicating a value of a DRXretransmission timer (e.g., a downlink DRX retransmission timer or anuplink DRX retransmission timer).

In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19 , a wirelessdevice may receive a first downlink transport block. For the exampleshown in FIG. 18 , the wireless device may receive a DCI comprising adynamic downlink assignment indicating parameters (e.g., radioresources, HARQ related parameters, etc.) for reception of the firstdownlink transport block via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).For the example shown in FIG. 19 , the configuration parameters receivedvia the one or more messages (e.g., the one or more RRC messages) maycomprise downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configurationparameters of a downlink SPS configuration. The wireless device mayreceive an SPS activation DCI indicating activation of the downlink SPSconfiguration. As shown in FIG. 19 , a plurality of SPS resources may beactivated in response to reception of the SPS activation DCI, whereinthe plurality of resources may be based on the downlink SPSconfiguration parameters and based on the SPS activation DCI. Thewireless device may receive the first downlink transport block (e.g.,based on a dynamic downlink assignment as shown in FIG. 18 or based on aconfigured downlink assignment as shown in FIG. 19 ).

The wireless device may determine a first timing of a first HARQfeedback associated with the first downlink transport block. Thewireless device may determine the first timing of the first HARQfeedback based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI(e.g., the DCI comprising the dynamic grant as shown in FIG. 18 or theSPS activation DCI as shown in FIG. 19 ) and the timing of reception ofthe first downlink transport block. The first timing of the first HARQfeedback (e.g., a first slot or a first sub-slot that the first HARQfeedback is scheduled to be transmitted), associated with the firstdownlink transport block, may collide/overlap in one or more symbolswith one or more semi-static downlink symbols or may collide/overlap inone or more symbols with a synchronization signal block (SSB) or maycollide/overlap in one or more symbols with CORESET #0 (e.g., used formonitoring a common search space and for reception of schedulinginformation of system information (e.g., system information block 1(SIB1)). In response to the determination that the first timingoverlaps/collides in one or more symbols with the one or moresemi-static downlink symbols or with a SSB or with a CORESET #0, thewireless device may determine to skip or to defer the first HARQfeedback associated with the downlink transport block. For example, thewireless device may determine to defer the first HARQ feedback to afirst available timing/slot/sub-slot/symbols that are available/usefulfor transmission of the HARQ feedback, for example, based on the firstavailable timing/slot/sub-slot/symbols not colliding/overlapping withsemi-static downlink symbols or not colliding/overlapping with SSB ornot colliding/overlapping with CORESET #0.

In response to the determination to skip or to defer the first HARQfeedback, the wireless device may start or restart the DRXretransmission timer (e.g., the downlink retransmission timer) with thevalue indicated by the first parameter (e.g., drx-RetransmissionTimerDL)in the DRX configuration parameters. The wireless device may start theDRX retransmission timer for the HARQ process associated with the firstdownlink transport. For example, the HARQ process may be indicated bythe downlink assignment (e.g., indicated by the DCI in FIG. 18 ) or thewireless device may determine the HARQ process associated with the firstdownlink transport block based on a timing of the downlink transportblock in case the first downlink transport block is a SPS downlinktransport block as shown in FIG. 19 . The wireless device may be in aDRX Active time while the DRX retransmission timer is running and maymonitor a downlink control channel while the DRX retransmission timer isrunning/the wireless device is in DRX Active time. In an example, inresponse to monitoring the control channel, the wireless device mayreceive a DCI comprising a downlink assignment for reception of a thirddownlink transport block for the HARQ process associated with the firstdownlink transport block.

In an example, the wireless device may receive a second downlinktransport block. For example, the wireless device may receive a secondDCI comprising a second downlink assignment indicating parameters forreception of the second downlink transport block. For example, thewireless device may receive the second downlink transport block viaresources associated with the downlink SPS configuration. The wirelessdevice may determine a second timing of a second HARQ feedbackassociated with the second downlink transport block. The wireless devicemay determine the second timing of the second HARQ feedback based on aPDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the second DCI (e.g., the secondDCI comprising the second downlink assignment or the SPS activation DCI)and the timing of reception of the second downlink transport block. Thewireless device may determine not to skip or not to defer the secondHARQ feedback, for example, in response to the second timing of thesecond HARQ feedback (e.g., a second slot or a second sub-slot that theHARQ feedback is scheduled to be transmitted), associated with thesecond downlink transport block, not colliding/not overlapping with asemi-static downlink symbol or not colliding/not overlapping with asynchronization signal block (SSB) or not colliding/not overlapping withCORESET #0. In response to the determination to not defer or not skipthe second HARQ feedback, the wireless device may stop a DRXretransmission timer (e.g., the downlink DRX retransmission timer). Thewireless device may stop the DRX retransmission timer for the HARQprocess associated with the second downlink transport block. Thewireless device may transmit the second HARQ feedback at the secondtiming. The wireless device may start a HARQ RTT timer (for the HARQprocess associated with the second downlink transport block) with asecond value. For example, the DRX configuration parameters may comprisea second parameter (e.g., drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL) indicating the secondvalue of the HARQ RTT timer. The wireless device may start the DRXretransmission timer, for the corresponding HARQ process, in response tothe HARQ RTT timer expiring. The wireless device may be in a DRX Activetime in while the DRX retransmission timer is running and may monitor acontrol channel while in the DRX Active time.

In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 20 , a wireless device mayreceive time alignment group (TAG) configuration parameters indicatingthat a cell belongs to a TAG. The wireless device may receive aconfiguration parameter indicating a value of a time alignment timerassociated with the cell. The cell may be used for transmission of anuplink control channel, for example, for transmission of HARQ feedback.The wireless device may receive a downlink transport block via aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). For example, the wirelessdevice may receive the downlink transport block based on a SPS resourceassociated with a SPS configuration. For example, the wireless devicemay receive the downlink transport block based on a DCI comprising adownlink assignment. The wireless device may determine a first timing(e.g., a first sub-slot or a first slot) of a HARQ feedback associatedwith the downlink transport block. For example, the wireless device maydetermine the first timing based on a value of a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedbacktiming field of a DCI (e.g., the DCI comprising the downlink assignmentor a SPS activation DCI) and a timing of reception of the downlinktransport block. The first timing of the HARQ feedback (e.g., a slot ora sub-slot that the HARQ feedback is scheduled to be transmitted),associated with the downlink transport block, may collide/overlap in oneor more symbols with one or more semi-static downlink symbols or maycollide/overlap in one or more symbols with a synchronization signalblock (SSB) or may collide/overlap in one or more symbols with CORESET#0 (e.g., used for monitoring a common search space and for reception ofscheduling information of system information (e.g., system informationblock 1 (SIB1)). In response to the determination that the first timingoverlaps/collides in one or more symbols with the one or moresemi-static downlink symbols or with a SSB or with a CORESET #0, thewireless device may determine to defer the HARQ feedback associated withthe downlink transport block to a second timing. For example, the secondtiming may be an earliest available timing/slot/sub-slot/symbols, afterthe first timing, that are available/useful for transmission of the HARQfeedback, for example, based on the availabletiming/slot/sub-slot/symbols not colliding/overlapping with semi-staticdownlink symbols or not colliding/overlapping with SSB or notcolliding/overlapping with CORESET #0.

The wireless device may determine whether the time alignment timer,associated with the cell, is running at the second timing. The timealignment timer of the cell, used for transmission of HARQ feedback, maybe running or may not be running at the first timing. The time alignmenttimer may be running at the second timing. The wireless device maydetermine that the time alignment timer is running at the second timing.The wireless device may transmit the HARQ feedback at the second timingbased on the time alignment timer running at the second timing. Thetransmission of the HARQ feedback at the second timing may beirrespective of whether the time alignment timer is running or notrunning at the first timing.

In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 21 , a wireless device mayreceive a first downlink transport block via a physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH). For example, the wireless device may receive the firstdownlink transport block based on a SPS resource associated with a SPSconfiguration. For example, the wireless device may receive the firstdownlink transport block based on a DCI comprising a dynamic downlinkassignment indicating parameters (e.g., radio resources, HARQ relatedparameters, etc.) for reception of the first downlink transport block.The first downlink transport block may be associated with a first HARQprocess. For example, the DCI may indicate the first HARQ process numberin case the DCI comprises the dynamic downlink assignment. For example,the wireless device may determine the first HARQ process number based ona timing of reception of the first downlink transport block in case ofthe first downlink transport block being a SPS downlink transport block.The wireless device may determine a first timing (e.g., a first sub-slotor a first slot) of a HARQ feedback associated with the first downlinktransport block. For example, the wireless device may determine thefirst timing based on a value of a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing fieldof a DCI (e.g., the DCI comprising the dynamic downlink assignment or aSPS activation DCI) and a timing of reception of the first downlinktransport block. The first timing of the HARQ feedback (e.g., a slot ora sub-slot that the HARQ feedback is scheduled to be transmitted),associated with the first downlink transport block, may collide/overlapin one or more symbols with one or more semi-static downlink symbols ormay collide/overlap in one or more symbols with a synchronization signalblock (SSB) or may collide/overlap in one or more symbols with CORESET#0 (e.g., used for monitoring a common search space and for reception ofscheduling information of system information (e.g., system informationblock 1 (SIB1)). In response to the determination that the first timingoverlaps/collides in one or more symbols with the one or moresemi-static downlink symbols or with a SSB or with a CORESET #0, thewireless device may determine to defer the HARQ feedback associated withthe first downlink transport block to a second timing. For example, thesecond timing may be an earliest available timing/slot/sub-slot/symbols(e.g., after the first timing) that are available/useful fortransmission of the HARQ feedback, for example, based on the availabletiming/slot/sub-slot/symbols not colliding/overlapping with semi-staticdownlink symbols or not colliding/overlapping with SSB or notcolliding/overlapping with CORESET #0.

The wireless device may receive a second downlink transport block or aDCI scheduling the second downlink transport block at a third timing.The second downlink transport block may be associated with the firstHARQ process (e.g., the same HARQ process as the first downlinktransport block). In an example, the third timing of reception of thesecond transport block or the DCI scheduling the second transport blockmay be before the second timing of scheduled transmission of thedeferred HARQ feedback for the first transport block.

The wireless device may construct a HARQ feedback codebook fortransmission (e.g., via a PUCCH) at the second timing. The wirelessdevice may determine to multiplex the HARQ feedback or not to multiplexthe HARQ feedback based on the third timing and/or based on the secondtiming and/or based on a processing time for HARQ feedback codebookconstruction. The wireless device may determine to multiplex the HARQfeedback or to drop the HARQ feedback based on the third timing and/orbased on the second timing and/or based on a processing time for HARQfeedback codebook construction. In an example, the processing time forHARQ feedback codebook construction may be based on a wireless devicecapability parameter. In an example, the wireless device may transmit acapability message to the base station comprising an informationelement, wherein a value of the information element may indicate thewireless device capability in terms of the HARQ feedback codebookconstruction such as HARQ feedback codebook construction processingtime. For example, based on a difference between the second timing andthe third timing being larger than the processing time for HARQ feedbackcodebook construction, the wireless device may drop (e.g., notmultiplex), the HARQ feedback in the HARQ feedback codebook. Forexample, based on a difference between the second timing and the thirdtiming being smaller than the processing time for HARQ feedback codebookconstruction, the wireless device may multiplex the HARQ feedback in theHARQ feedback codebook.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive firstconfiguration parameters comprising a first parameter indicating a valueof a discontinuous reception (DRX) retransmission timer. The wirelessdevice may determine to skip or to defer a first HARQ feedback,associated with a first downlink transport block, based on a firsttiming/slot/sub-slot of the first HARQ feedback colliding/overlapping(e.g., in one or more symbols) with one or more semi-static downlinksymbols or colliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or more symbols) withsynchronization signal block (SSB), or colliding/overlapping (e.g., inone or more symbols) with CORESET #0. In response to the determining,the wireless device may start or restart the DRX retransmission timerwith the value for a first HARQ process corresponding to the firsttransport block. The wireless device may monitor a downlink controlchannel while the DRX retransmission timer is running.

In an example, the wireless device may receive a downlink controlinformation (DCI) comprising a physical downlink shared channel(PDSCH)-to-hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback timingindicator field. The wireless device may receive the downlink transportblock based on the DCI. The wireless device may determine the firsttiming based on a first value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing.

In an example, the wireless device may receive second configurationparameters of a downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration.The DCI may indicate activation of the downlink SPS configuration. Thewireless device may receive the first downlink transport block based onthe second configuration parameters.

In an example, the wireless device may receive a second transport block.The wireless device may determine not to skip or not to defer a secondHARQ feedback, associated with the second downlink transport block. Forexample, based on a second timing/slot/sub-slot of the second HARQfeedback not colliding/overlapping with a semi-static downlink symbol,or the second timing/slot/sub-slot of the second HARQ feedback notcolliding/overlapping with synchronization signal block (SSB), or thesecond timing/slot/sub-slot of the second HARQ feedback notcolliding/overlapping with CORESET #0, the wireless device may determinenot to skip or not to defer a second HARQ feedback, associated with thesecond downlink transport block. The wireless device may stop a DRXretransmission timer associated with a second HARQ process correspondingto the second transport block. In an example, the wireless device maytransmit the second HARQ feedback. The wireless device may start a HARQRTT timer in response to transmitting the second HARQ feedback. Thewireless device may start or restart the DRX retransmission timer inresponse to the HARQ RTT timer expiring. In an example, the firstconfiguration parameters may comprise a second parameter indicating asecond value of the HARQ RTT timer. The starting or restarting the HARQRTT timer may be with the second value.

In an example, the wireless device may receive a DCI based on themonitoring. The wireless device may receive, based on the DCI, a thirdtransport block associated with the first HARQ process.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may a downlink transportblock. The wireless device may determine a first timing/slot/sub-slot ofa HARQ feedback associated with the downlink transport block. Thewireless device may determine to defer the HARQ feedback based on thefirst timing/slot/sub-slot colliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or moresymbols) with one or more semi-static downlink symbols, orcolliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or more symbols) withsynchronization signal block (SSB), or colliding/overlapping (e.g., inone or more symbols) with CORESET #0. The wireless device may determinea second timing for transmission of the HARQ feedback. The wirelessdevice may determine whether a time alignment timer associated with acell used for transmission of the HARQ feedback is running at the secondtiming. The wireless device may transmit the HARQ feedback at the secondtiming based on a time alignment timer associated with a cell used fortransmission of the HARQ feedback being running at the second timing.The wireless device may transmit the HARQ feedback at the second timing,wherein transmitting the HARQ feedback may be based on a time alignmenttimer associated with a cell used for transmission of the HARQ feedbackbeing running at the second timing and may not be based on and/or may beirrespective of whether the time alignment timer being running or notrunning at the first timing.

In an example embodiment, a wireless device may receive a transportblock associated with a first HARQ process. The wireless device maydetermine to defer/postpone a first HARQ feedback associated with thefirst TB from a first timing to a second timing based on the firsttiming colliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or more symbols) with one ormore semi-static downlink symbols, or based on the first timingcolliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or more symbols) withsynchronization signal block (SSB), or based on the first timingcolliding/overlapping (e.g., in one or more symbols) with CORESET #0.The wireless device may receive a second TB/DCI, associated with thefirst HARQ process, at a third timing. The wireless device may transmita HARQ feedback codebook at the second timing, wherein the HARQ feedbackcodebook comprises or does not comprise the first HARQ feedback based onthe third timing, the second timing and a processing time associatedwith HARQ feedback codebook construction.

In an example, the wireless device may receive a first DCI comprising aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)-to-hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback timing field, wherein the first timing is basedon a value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field. In an example,the receiving the first transport block may be based on the first DCI.In an example, the wireless device may receive configuration parametersof a downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration, whereinthe first DCI indicates activation of the downlink SPS configuration. Inan example, a plurality of SPS resources may be activated in response toreception of the first DCI. The reception of the first transport blockmay be based on a first SPS resource in the plurality of SPS resources.In an example, the first DCI may comprise a dynamic downlink assignmentcomprising transmission parameters of the first transport block.

In an example, the HARQ feedback codebook may comprise the first HARQfeedback based on a difference between the third timing and the secondtiming being smaller than the processing time.

In an example, the HARQ feedback codebook may not comprise the firstHARQ feedback based on a difference between the third timing and thesecond timing being larger than the processing time.

In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 22 , a wireless device mayreceive one or more messages (e.g., one or more RRC messages) comprisingconfiguration parameters. The one or more messages may compriseconfiguration parameters of one or more cells comprising a one or moretiming advance groups (TAGs). A TAG, in the one or more TAGs, may beassociated with a timing advance. For uplink transmissions via a cell,in the TAG, may be based on an uplink timing that is determined based onthe timing advance associated with the TAG that includes the cell. Theconfiguration parameters may comprise one or more first configurationparameters of a time alignment timer of a TAG comprising a cell. The oneor more first configuration parameters may comprise a first parameterindicating a value of the time alignment timer associated with the TAG.For example, the wireless device may receive a timing advance commandMAC CE indicating a timing advance command associated with the TAG andthe wireless device may start the time alignment timer, with the value,in response to receiving the timing advance MAC CE.

The wireless device may receive a DCI and may receive a transport blockbased on the DCI. For example, the wireless device may receiveconfiguration parameters of a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)configuration, the DCI may be an activation DCI indicating activation ofthe SPS configuration and the transport block may be a SPS transportblock. For example, the SPS configuration parameters may comprise aperiodicity parameter indicating a periodicity, e.g., separation betweenconsecutive SPS transport block. For example, the DCI may comprisescheduling information indicating radio resources for receiving thetransport block.

The wireless device may determine a first timing of a HARQ feedbackassociated with the transport block. For example, the DCI may comprise afield (e.g., a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field) indicating the firsttiming of the transport block. For example, the wireless device maydetermine the first timing based on a third timing of receiving thetransport block. For example, a value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedbacktiming field of the DCI may indicate a separation/duration between thethird timing of the transport block and the first timing of the HARQfeedback and the wireless device may determine the first timing based onthe third timing and the value of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timingfield of the DCI.

The wireless device may determine to defer transmission of the HARQfeedback associated with the transport block from the first timing to asecond timing. In an example, the wireless device may determine to defertransmission of the HARQ feedback based on the first timing overlappingwith one or more symbols that include a downlink symbol (e.g., based onone or more semi-static configuration parameters indicating that asymbol in the one or more symbols is a downlink symbol) or based on thefirst timing overlapping with one or more symbols that include a symbolassociated with a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channelblock (SS/PBCH block) or based on the first timing overlapping with oneor more symbols that include a symbol that belongs to a CORESET (e.g.,CORESET #0) that is associated with (e.g., used for receiving schedulinginformation for receiving) system information (e.g., a systeminformation block, e.g., SIB1). The wireless device may determine thesecond timing (to which the HARQ feedback is deferred from the firsttiming) based on the second timing not overlapping with a symbol that isa downlink symbol (e.g., based on one or more semi-static configurationparameters not indicating that the symbol is a downlink symbol) or basedon the second timing not overlapping with a symbol that is associatedwith a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCHblock) or based on the second timing not overlapping with a symbol thatbelongs to a CORESET (e.g., CORESET #0) that is associated with (e.g.,used for receiving scheduling information for receiving) systeminformation (e.g., a system information block, e.g., SIB1).

The wireless device may transmit the HARQ feedback, associated with thetransport block, in the second timing via the cell (e.g., via the cellbelonging to the TAG) based on the time alignment timer, associated withthe TAG, running in the second timing. The time alignment timer,associated with the TAG, may be running, or may not be running in thefirst timing. The wireless device may transmit the HARQ feedback in thesecond timing based on the time alignment timer, associate with the TAG,running in the second timing and regardless of whether the timealignment timer is running or is not running in the first timing.

In accordance with various exemplary embodiments in the presentdisclosure, a device (e.g., a wireless device, a base station and/oralike) may include one or more processors and may include memory thatmay store instructions. The instructions, when executed by the one ormore processors, cause the device to perform actions as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings and described in the specification. The orderof events or actions, as shown in a flow chart of this disclosure, mayoccur and/or may be performed in any logically coherent order. In someexamples, at least two of the events or actions shown may occur or maybe performed at least in part simultaneously and/or in parallel. In someexamples, one or more additional events or actions may occur or may beperformed prior to, after, or in between the events or actions shown inthe flow charts of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. At 2310, a wirelessdevice may receive one or more first configuration parameters of a timealignment timer of a time alignment group comprising a cell. At 2320,the wireless device may receive a downlink control information (DCI). At2330, the wireless device may receive a transport block based on theDCI. At 2340, the wireless device may determine a first timing of ahybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, associated with thetransport block, based on the DCI. At 2350, the wireless device maydetermine to defer transmission of a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) feedback, associated with the transport block, from the firsttiming to a second timing. At 2360, the wireless device may transmit,via the cell, the HARQ feedback in the second timing: based on the timealignment timer running in the second timing; and regardless of whetherthe time alignment timer is running or is not running in the firsttiming.

In an example embodiment, the determining at 2350, to defer may be basedon the first timing overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbolbased on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with asynchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set(CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used inreceiving system information.

In an example embodiment, the DCI, received at 2320, may be asemi-persistent scheduling (SPS) activation DCI. The transport block,received at 2330, may be associated with a SPS configuration. In anexample embodiment, the wireless device may receive second configurationparameters of the SPS configuration.

In an example embodiment, the second timing may be an earliest timing,after the first timing, not overlapping with a symbol that: is adownlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration; or is associatedwith a synchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resourceset (CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used inreceiving system information.

In an example embodiment, the first timing may be based on a value of afield of the DCI received at 2320. In an example embodiment, the firsttiming may be based on a third timing of receiving the transport blockat 2330.

In an example embodiment, the one or more first configurationparameters, received at 2310, may comprise a first parameter indicatinga value of the time alignment timer. In an example embodiment, thewireless device may start the time alignment timer in response toreceiving a timing advance command medium access control (MAC) controlelement (CE). In an example embodiment, the wireless device may apply atiming advance command in response to receiving the timing advancecommand MAC CE. The timing advance command MAC CE may comprise thetiming advance command.

FIG. 24 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. At 2410, a wirelessdevice may receive one or more configuration parameters of a timealignment timer associated with a cell. At 2420, the wireless device maydetermine to defer transmission of a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) feedback, associated with a transport block, from a first timingto a second timing. At 2430, the wireless device may transmit, via thecell, the HARQ feedback in the second timing: based on the timealignment timer running in the second timing; and regardless of whetherthe time alignment timer is running or is not running in the firsttiming.

FIG. 25 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. At 2510, a wirelessdevice may receive a first transport block associated with a firsthybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number. At 2520, thewireless device may determine to defer a first HARQ feedback, of thefirst transport block, from a first timing to a second timing. At 2530,the wireless device may receive a second transport block, associatedwith the first HARQ process number, in a third timing. At 2540, thewireless device may transmit a HARQ feedback codebook in the secondtiming. The HARQ feedback codebook may comprise or may not comprise thefirst HARQ feedback based on the third timing, the second timing and aprocessing time associated with HARQ feedback codebook construction.

In example embodiment, the determining at 2520, to defer may be based onthe first timing overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbolbased on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with asynchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set(CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used inreceiving system information.

In an example embodiment, receiving the first transport block, at 2510,and/or receiving the second transport block, at 2530, may be based on adownlink control information (DCI). In an example embodiment, the DCImay be a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) activation DCI. The firsttransport block, received at 2510, or the second transport block,received at 2530, may be associated with a SPS configuration. In anexample embodiment, the wireless device may receive configurationparameters of the SPS configuration.

In an example embodiment, the second timing, determined at 2520, may bean earliest timing, after the first timing, not overlapping with asymbol that: is a downlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration;or is associated with a synchronization signal block; or belongs to acontrol resource set (CORESET) associated with a common search spacethat is used in receiving system information.

In an example embodiment, receiving the first transport block may bebased on a downlink control information (DCI). The first timing may bebased on a value of a field of the DCI. In an example embodiment, thefirst timing may be based on a third timing of receiving the firsttransport block.

In an example embodiment, the HARQ feedback codebook may comprise thefirst HARQ feedback based on a difference between the third timing andthe second timing being smaller than the processing time.

In an example embodiment, the HARQ feedback codebook may not comprisethe first HARQ feedback based on a difference between the third timingand the second timing being larger than the processing time.

FIG. 26 shows an example flow diagram in accordance with several ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure. At 2610, a wirelessdevice may receive first configuration parameters comprising a firstparameter indicating a value of a discontinuous reception (DRX)retransmission timer. At 2620, the wireless device may determine to skipor to defer a first HARQ feedback, associated with a first transportblock. At 2630, in response to the determining, the wireless device maystart or may restart the DRX retransmission timer with the value for afirst HARQ process corresponding to the first transport block. At 2640,the wireless device may monitor a downlink control channel while the DRXretransmission timer is running.

In an example embodiment, the determining to defer, at 2620, may be froma first timing to a second timing. In an example embodiment, thedetermining to defer, at 2620, may be based on the first timingoverlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbol based on asemi-static configuration; or is associated with a synchronizationsignal block; or belongs to a control resource set (CORESET) associatedwith a common search space that is used in receiving system information.

Various exemplary embodiments of the disclosed technology are presentedas example implementations and/or practices of the disclosed technology.The exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are not intended to limit thescope. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that variouschanges can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departure fromthe scope. After studying the exemplary embodiments of the disclosedtechnology, alternative aspects, features and/or embodiments will becomeapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Without departing from thescope, various elements or features from the exemplary embodiments maybe combined to create additional embodiments. The exemplary embodimentsare described with reference to the drawings. The figures and theflowcharts that demonstrate the benefits and/or functions of variousaspects of the disclosed technology are presented for illustrationpurposes only. The disclosed technology can be flexibly configuredand/or reconfigured such that one or more elements of the disclosedembodiments may be employed in alternative ways. For example, an elementmay be optionally used in some embodiments or the order of actionslisted in a flowchart may be changed without departure from the scope.

An example embodiment of the disclosed technology may be configured tobe performed when deemed necessary, for example, based on one or moreconditions in a wireless device, a base station, a radio and/or corenetwork configuration, a combination thereof and/or alike. For example,an example embodiment may be performed when the one or more conditionsare met. Example one or more conditions may be one or moreconfigurations of the wireless device and/or base station, traffic loadand/or type, service type, battery power, a combination of thereofand/or alike. In some scenarios and based on the one or more conditions,one or more features of an example embodiment may be implementedselectively.

In this disclosure, the articles “a” and “an” used before a group of oneor more words are to be understood as “at least one” or “one or more” ofwhat the group of the one or more words indicate. The use of the term“may” before a phrase is to be understood as indicating that the phraseis an example of one of a plurality of useful alternatives that may beemployed in an embodiment in this disclosure.

In this disclosure, an element may be described using the terms“comprises”, “includes” or “consists of” in combination with a list ofone or more components. Using the terms “comprises” or “includes”indicates that the one or more components are not an exhaustive list forthe description of the element and do not exclude components other thanthe one or more components. Using the term “consists of” indicates thatthe one or more components is a complete list for description of theelement. In this disclosure, the term “based on” is intended to mean“based at least in part on”. The term “based on” is not intended to mean“based only on”. In this disclosure, the term “and/or” used in a list ofelements indicates any possible combination of the listed elements. Forexample, “X, Y, and/or Z” indicates X; Y; Z; X and Y; X and Z; Y and Z;or X, Y, and Z.

Some elements in this disclosure may be described by using the term“may” in combination with a plurality of features. For brevity and easeof description, this disclosure may not include all possiblepermutations of the plurality of features. By using the term “may” incombination with the plurality of features, it is to be understood thatall permutations of the plurality of features are being disclosed. Forexample, by using the term “may” for description of an element with fourpossible features, the element is being described for all fifteenpermutations of the four possible features. The fifteen permutationsinclude one permutation with all four possible features, fourpermutations with any three features of the four possible features, sixpermutations with any two features of the four possible features andfour permutations with any one feature of the four possible features.

Although mathematically a set may be an empty set, the term set used inthis disclosure is a nonempty set. Set B is a subset of set A if everyelement of set B is in set A. Although mathematically a set has an emptysubset, a subset of a set is to be interpreted as a non-empty subset inthis disclosure. For example, for set A={subcarrier1, subcarrier2}, thesubsets are {subcarrier1}, {subcarrier2} and {subcarrier1, subcarrier2}.In this disclosure, the phrase “based on” may be used equally with“based at least on” and what follows “based on” or “based at least on”indicates an example of one of plurality of useful alternatives that maybe used in an embodiment in this disclosure. The phrase “in response to”may be used equally with “in response at least to” and what follows “inresponse to” or “in response at least to” indicates an example of one ofplurality of useful alternatives that may be used in an embodiment inthis disclosure. The phrase “depending on” may be used equally with“depending at least on” and what follows “depending on” or “depending atleast on” indicates an example of one of plurality of usefulalternatives that may be used in an embodiment in this disclosure. Thephrases “employing” and “using” and “employing at least” and “using atleast” may be used equally in this in this disclosure and what follows“employing” or “using” or “employing at least” or “using at least”indicates an example of one of plurality of useful alternatives that maybe used in an embodiment in this disclosure.

The example embodiments disclosed in this disclosure may be implementedusing a modular architecture comprising a plurality of modules. A modulemay be defined in terms of one or more functions and may be connected toone or more other elements and/or modules. A module may be implementedin hardware, software, firmware, one or more biological elements (e.g.,an organic computing device and/or a neurocomputer) and/or a combinationthereof and/or alike. Example implementations of a module may be assoftware code configured to be executed by hardware and/or a modelingand simulation program that may be coupled with hardware. In an example,a module may be implemented using general-purpose or special-purposeprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), microprocessors,microcontrollers, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs),programmable logic devices (PLDs) and/or alike. The hardware may beprogrammed using machine language, assembly language, high-levellanguage (e.g., Python, FORTRAN, C, C++ or the like) and/or alike. In anexample, the function of a module may be achieved by using a combinationof the mentioned implementation methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a wireless device, one or more first configuration parameters of a time alignment timer of a time alignment group comprising a cell; receiving a downlink control information (DCI); receiving a transport block based on the DCI; determining a first timing of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, associated with the transport block, based on the DCI; determining to defer transmission of the HARQ feedback from the first timing to a second timing; and transmitting, via the cell, the HARQ feedback in the second timing: based on the time alignment timer running in the second timing; and regardless of whether the time alignment timer is running or is not running in the first timing.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining to defer is based on the first timing overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with a synchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set (CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used in receiving system information.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the DCI is a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) activation DCI; and the transport block is associated with a SPS configuration.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving second configuration parameters of the SPS configuration.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second timing is an earliest timing, after the first timing, not overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with a synchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set (CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used in receiving system information.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first timing is based on a value of a field of the DCI.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first timing is based on a third timing of receiving the transport block.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first configuration parameters comprise a first parameter indicating a value of the time alignment timer.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising starting the time alignment timer in response to receiving a timing advance command medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising applying a timing advance command in response to receiving the timing advance command MAC CE, wherein the timing advance command MAC CE comprises the timing advance command.
 11. A wireless device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the wireless device to: receive one or more first configuration parameters of a time alignment timer of a time alignment group comprising a cell; receive a downlink control information (DCI); receive a transport block based on the DCI; determine a first timing of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, associated with the transport block, based on the DCI; determine to defer transmission of the HARQ feedback from the first timing to a second timing; and transmit, via the cell, the HARQ feedback in the second timing: based on the time alignment timer running in the second timing; and regardless of whether the time alignment timer is running or is not running in the first timing.
 12. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the determining to defer is based on the first timing overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with a synchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set (CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used in receiving system information.
 13. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein: the DCI is a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) activation DCI; and the transport block is associated with a SPS configuration.
 14. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processes, further cause the wireless device to receive second configuration parameters of the SPS configuration.
 15. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the second timing is an earliest timing, after the first timing, not overlapping with a symbol that: is a downlink symbol based on a semi-static configuration; or is associated with a synchronization signal block; or belongs to a control resource set (CORESET) associated with a common search space that is used in receiving system information.
 16. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the first timing is based on a value of a field of the DCI.
 17. The wireless device of claim 16, wherein the first timing is based on a third timing of receiving the transport block.
 18. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the one or more first configuration parameters comprise a first parameter indicating a value of the time alignment timer.
 19. The wireless device of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processes, further cause the wireless device to start the time alignment timer in response to receiving a timing advance command medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).
 20. The wireless device of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processes, further cause the wireless device to apply a timing advance command in response to receiving the timing advance command MAC CE, wherein the timing advance command MAC CE comprises the timing advance command. 